Market Mindset

A colloquialism floating around recently is one touted as ‘sell America’. This is in line with the growing assertion around dollar debasement. 

The New York Times has reported ‘Sell America’ is in itself a new buzz trade, with investing.com purporting this rhetoric ‘will define 2026’. 

Analysing this sell America narrative is paramount; Bloomberg has dubbed ‘even a hint of sell America rattles global markets.’

Sell America is the concept that has emerged following Liberation Day in April 2025, which pertains to the selling off of American assets – USD, US equities and US treasury securities. By reducing exposure to these US tied assets, investors see greater intrinsic value, stability, and returns in other safe-haven assets. This ties in with why bullion has seen, what can only be described as an astronomical journey in the past 6 months. With gold shifting first, and silver trailing with more extreme price swings and high volatility, as evidenced by the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) which observed a YTD performance of 94% in 2026. 

Investing.com is right in maintaining that sell America is a pressing issue moving forward this year, the dollar fell 9.29% in 2025 – its worst performance since 2017. Along with this, President Trump reignited contentions over Greenland over the past couple of weeks in January. His threats of a trade war to Europe on January 19^th, 2026, saw the dollar slip in response. 

This growing tension in markets around Greenland being a driver of a US sell-off, and too the political relationship with Denmark over their territory, can be confirmed as a growing predicament. This is seen by a $25 Billion Danish Pension Fund – AkademikerPension announcing on 20^th January 2026, that they are divesting their entire portfolio of $100 million portfolio of US Treasuries.  

This sentiment can cause a stir across global markets, due to the dollar’s presence as the central reserve currency globally and fabricate ripples across all asset classes and all other markets. Changing the dynamic of EM currency FX carry trades, pushing 10-year treasury yields higher, capital can leave US equities and find value in Europe. 

To understand whether the sell America sentiment is backed by validity, the 90-day correlation between the dollar and the S&P 500 will have to be watched. If this correlation is indeed positive, it will affirm that investors are trading in all US assets at once, and worries are continuing to swell.

The 30-year treasury yield is currently sitting at 4.896 – 4.90%; this could come lower if US inflation eases. Watching the 30-year yields, and if they sustain above 5% which will act as a critical threshold here. If they do this could prove that there is an accelerated capital flight due to fiscal concerns, and that Sell America has materialised beyond just noise. 

Disclaimer: Not financial advice