Demand from all corners of the globe for the safety and security of U.S. Treasury debt has acted to keep a lid on long-term interest rates, even as the Federal Reserve has raised short-term rates aggressively over the past two-plus years and inflation has remained stubbornly high. Total public debt owed by the U.S. federal government was $34 trillion at the end of 4Q23, according to the DOT. Outside of U.S. investors, the two largest holders of U.S. public debt are Japan, which owns 3.4% of the debt, and China, which owns 2.3%. The other nations among the top 10 holders have 8% of the debt, so the top 10 holders collectively own about 14%. The grand total of U.S. debt owned by foreign holders is $8.0 trillion, or about 24% of the total. This absolute holdings level has increased 200 basis points over the past six months. Japan has been a leader here, as the nation's holdings have increased by 6%, or $55 billion in the past six months. China, meanwhile, has been selling, in part for political reasons. China's current Treasury holdings are lower by about $65 billion over the past year. Over in Europe, countries such as England, France, and Luxembourg have been buyers. We think this type of global demand for U.S. Treasuries should help keep a lid on long-term rates in 2024-2025.

Meta is the world’s largest online social network, with nearly 4 billion family of apps monthly active users. Users engage with each other in different ways, exchanging messages and sharing news events, photos, and videos. The firm’s ecosystem consists mainly of the Facebook app, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and many features surrounding these products. Users can access Facebook on mobile devices and desktops. Advertising revenue represents more than 90% of the firm’s total revenue, with more than 45% coming from the U.S. and Canada and over 20% from Europe.

Amazon is a leading online retailer and one of the highest-grossing e-commerce aggregators, with $386 billion in net sales and approximately $578 billion in estimated physical/digital online gross merchandise volume in 2021. Retail-related revenue represents approximately 80% of the total, followed by Amazon Web Services' cloud computing, storage, database, and other offerings (10%-15%), advertising services (5%), and other. International segments constitute 25%-30% of Amazon's non-AWS sales, led by Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Advanced Micro Devices designs a variety of digital semiconductors for markets such as PCs, gaming consoles, data centers, industrial, and automotive applications, among others. AMD’s traditional strength was in central processing units, CPUs, and graphics processing units, or GPUs, used in PCs and data centers. Additionally, the firm supplies the chips found in prominent game consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox. In 2022, the firm acquired field-programmable gate array, or FPGA, leader Xilinx to diversify its business and augment its opportunities in key end markets such as the data center and automotive.