(Bloomberg) -- Japanese funds bought a record amount of US sovereign bonds in August amid a rally in Treasuries, the latest balance-of-payments data from the country’s Ministry of Finance showed on Tuesday.
Net buying came to ¥5.59 trillion ($37.8 billion), bringing total purchases to ¥12.8 trillion for the January-August period. That’s similar to amount for the same period a year earlier. The data include bonds sold by the government, agencies, and local municipalities.
Treasuries rallied for a fourth month in August amid growing speculation of an outsized interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve, extending those gains into September when the US central bank lowered the benchmark rate by half a percentage point. Bets in further large rate reductions have since shrunk in part because of stronger-than-expected jobs data.
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