Liquidity
Our principal sources of liquidity as of April 26, 2019 consisted of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, cash we expect to generate from operations, and our commercial paper program and related credit facility.
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments consisted of the following (in millions):
As of April 26, 2019 and April 27, 2018, $3.7 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively, of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments were held by various foreign subsidiaries and were generally based in U.S. dollar-denominated holdings, while $0.2 billion and $0.9 billion, respectively, were available in the U.S. The TCJA imposes a one-time transition tax on substantially all accumulated foreign earnings through December 31, 2017, and generally allows companies to make distributions of foreign earnings without incurring additional federal taxes. As a part of the recognition of the impacts of the TCJA, we have reviewed our projected global cash requirements and have determined that certain historical and future foreign earnings will no longer be indefinitely reinvested.
Our principal liquidity requirements are primarily to meet our working capital needs, support ongoing business activities, fund research and development, meet capital expenditure needs, invest in critical or complementary technologies, service interest and principal payments on our debt, fund our stock repurchase program, and pay dividends, as and if declared.
The principal objectives of our investment policy are the preservation of principal and maintenance of liquidity. We attempt to mitigate default risk by investing in high-quality investment grade securities, limiting the time to maturity and monitoring the counter-parties and underlying obligors closely. We believe our cash equivalents and short-term investments are liquid and accessible. We are not aware of any significant deterioration in the fair value of our cash equivalents or investments from the values reported as of April 26, 2019.
Our investment portfolio has been and will continue to be exposed to market risk due to trends in the credit and capital markets. We continue to closely monitor current economic and market events to minimize the market risk of our investment portfolio. We routinely monitor our financial exposure to both sovereign and non-sovereign borrowers and counterparties. We utilize a variety of planning and financing strategies in an effort to ensure our worldwide cash is available when and where it is needed. Based on past performance and current expectations, we believe our cash and cash equivalents, investments, cash generated from operations, and ability to access capital markets and committed credit lines will satisfy, through at least the next 12 months, our liquidity requirements, both in total and domestically, including the following: working capital needs, capital expenditures, stock repurchases, cash dividends, contractual obligations, commitments, principal and interest payments on debt, and other liquidity requirements associated with our operations. We also have an automatic shelf registration statement on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). We may in the future offer an additional unspecified amount of debt, equity and other securities.
Table:
 | April 26, 2019 | April 27, 2018
Cash and cash equivalents | $ 2,325 | $ 2,941
Short-term investments | 1,574 | 2,450
Total | $ 3,899 | $ 5,391


Question: What was the percentage change in cash and cash equivalents between 2018 and 2019?
Answer: -20.95
Calculation: (2,325-2,941)/2,941