Canadian investors dump record US tech shares as foreign buyers pile into federal bonds
The broader pullback from foreign securities totalled $30.6 billion for the month, with US government bonds also seeing a reduction of $5.1 billion – the sixth consecutive monthly divestment in that category, bringing the year-to-date total to $37.3 billion. Partial offsets came from purchases of US corporate bonds ($1.8 billion) and non-US foreign bonds ($3.3 billion), though these were insufficient to change the overall direction of the flow.
Foreign demand for Canadian debt continues to surge
On the inbound side, the data from Statistics Canada paints a different picture. Foreign investors added $20.7 billion of Canadian securities in July, lifting total non-resident investment since January to $178.9 billion.
Federal government bonds remained the primary draw, attracting $22.7 billion in foreign purchases during the month alone. Over the first seven months of 2026, foreign investment in federal government bonds reached an unprecedented $104.0 billion – compared with just $13.8 billion during the same period in 2025. As a result, the share of total outstanding federal government bonds held by non-resident investors climbed from 40.2 per cent to 46.5 per cent between January and July 2026.
That momentum has been building steadily. Foreign investors poured $40.8 billion into Canadian securities in June 2026 capping an extraordinary second quarter driven by demand for federal debt, and the July figures suggest that appetite remains intact.
The scale of bond-buying in 2026 represents a structural shift rather than a short-term position. Earlier in the year, foreign investors poured record sums into Canadian government bonds in April, with US, Asian, and European buyers all contributing to what Statistics Canada described as record monthly acquisitions of both federal and provincial government bonds.
