The May surprise in the TIC data:  foreign central banks withdrew financing from the US.  The sold more Treasuries (14.3b) than they bought Agencies and corporate debt.  Net central bank flows into long-term debt were a negative $1.4b. The reason: Norway.   Norway – presumably its oil fund – sold $11.77b in Treasuries in May.

The other surprises: relatively strong outflows from the US continued in May, though US investors bought foreign bonds ($14.3b) rather than equities ($4.9b, down from an average of around $10b for the past few months); and private investors abroad suddenly rediscovered the joy of holding Treasuries.  After several months of muted purchases, they bought $27.5b in May.

On the other hand, I am increasingly frustrated with the TIC data, since it rather clearly isn’t picking up much of what is going on in the world

The big problem: the folks who have money and who must be doing the buying just aren’t showing up in the data.