SNB & CHF

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.49% at 1.1317 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 28(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar’s post-Fed gains have been extended, though the upside momentum appears to be stalling. Japan’s Nikkei advanced 1.35% on the back of the yen’s declines and reached its highest level since 1991. Chinese shares (A and H)...

Financial conditions remain supportive and are not expected to tighten much in the coming months. Lending to non-financial corporations in the euro grew by an annual 4.2% in August, its fastest rate since April 2009. Forward-looking indicators suggest that euro area credit growth should remain strong over the coming months. Overall, domestic demand is likely to continue to be the main driver of growth in the euro area,...

The UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2018 report is produced by UBS Global Wealth Management’s Chief Investment Office and analyzes residential property prices in 20 developed market financial centers around the world. Hong Kong faces the greatest risk of a housing bubble, followed in descending order by Munich, Toronto, Vancouver, Amsterdam, and London. Stockholm and Sydney moved out of bubble risk territory this...

– There has been a recent change for the better in central bank attitudes to gold – There has been “net gold demand by central banks – approx. 500 tonnes per year – as a source of return, liquidity and diversification” –  Policy shift to maintaining stable gold holdings reflects central bank concerns about financial markets and geopolitics – Little in the current global economic and political environment to support any...

June 13 sticks out for both eurodollar futures as well as IOER. On the surface, there should be no bearing on the former from the latter. They are technically unrelated; IOER being a current rate applied as an intended money alternative. Eurodollar futures are, as the term implies, about where all those money rates might fall in the future. Still, the eurodollar curve inverted conspicuously starting June 13. That was...

Looking for Opportunities The last time we discussed Bitcoin was in May 2017 when we pointed out that Bitcoin too suffers from seasonal weakness in the summer. We have shown that a seasonal pattern in Bitcoin can be easily identified. More than a year has passed since then and readers may wonder why we have not addressed the topic again. There is a simple reason for this: the lack of extensive historical data for...

Novartis currently employs 13,000 people across Switzerland The pharmaceutical giant Novartis will cut about 2,200 jobs in Switzerland over the next four years. Nearly 1,500 jobs are affected in production and about 700 in services. This restructuring is part of the manufacturing strategy launched in 2015 to adapt the industrial base to a reduced product portfolio, announced Novartis on Tuesdayexternal link. It...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.13% at 1.1373 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 26(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar is trading with a softer bias in tight ranges. The euro and sterling have been confined to yesterday’s ranges, while the greenback briefly traded above JPY113.00 for the first time in two months. The South African rand and Turkish...

Almost a quarter of Swiss dual nationals possess an Italian passport. Around 17% of Swiss residents over the age of 15 hold two passports. The canton of Geneva has the highest proportion of dual nationals at 45%. According to figures released by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Tuesday, the double nationality rate exceeds 20% in the cantons of Zurich, Basel City, Ticino, Vaud and Neuchâtel. The cantons with the...

Want to understand the full scope of neofeudalism in America? Follow the money and the power and privilege it buys. The repugnant reality of class privilege in America is captured by the phrase date rape: the violence of forced, non-consensual sex is abhorrent rape when committed by commoner criminals, but implicitly excusable date rape when committed by a member of America’s privileged elite. Compare the effectiveness...