Amid President Donald Trump’s global tariff battles, US Treasuries could be at risk of losing their safe-haven status, creating new concerns for investors in the Middle East — led by Saudi Arabia, which held nearly $130 billion in US Treasury bonds as of January 2025 — that have prized US debt for its stability and liquidity.

Although Trump declared a 90-day pause on some recently announced tariffs on April 9, the move has so far done little to calm markets spooked by his escalating global trade war. That includes ongoing signs of a broader loss of confidence in America’s financial leadership as investors flee US Treasuries — a core pillar of the global financial system. 

As of April 11, yields on the 10-year US Treasury note jumped nearly 50 basis points over the past week to reach 4.48%, while 30-year yields rose 44 basis points to 4.85% in the same period. Crucially, these yields, which move inversely to bond prices, are going up when they typically would be falling as investors flee into safer assets at a moment of market volatility. Although US stocks surged on April 9 after Trump's tariff reversal, the rally quickly leveled off, and the S&P 500 is still down roughly 5% as of April 11. 

In a sign of the unease about US stocks and bond prices falling together, former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers wrote in a post on X on April 9 that this highly unusual pattern suggests a generalized aversion to US assets among foreign investors. “We are being treated by global financial markets like a problematic emerging market,” he wrote.