SNB & CHF

When I wrote the update two weeks ago I said that we might be nearing the point of maximum optimism. Apparently, there is another gear for optimism in this market as stocks have just continued to slowly but surely reach for the sky. Which is fine I suppose since we own the devils (although not much in the way of the US variety) but I can’t help but wonder what happens when the spell breaks. Goldilocks may be in the...

Claim-Less Delirium Yesterday, the Department of Labor announced that initial jobless claims dropped. Quite a lot. So naturally, markets reacted. The stock market began to rise. The euro rose, at least for a while. Unemployment Claims Index, Aug 1998 - Oct 2017Initial weekly unenjoyment claims over the past 20 years. Can you say “contrary indicator”? - Click to enlarge The most recent palpitations in this measure...

Yannis Varoufakis L’ancien ministre grec Yannis Varoufakis vient de sortir un livre, « Conversations entre adultes. Dans les coulisses secrètes de l’Europe (Les Liens qui libèrent, 530 pages, 26 euros) », dans lequel cet économiste anticonformiste relate son expérience de ministre des finances de sept mois, janvier-juillet 2015, dans le gouvernement d’extrême-gauche de Alexis Tsipras. Il y partage notamment son vécu...

Summary: Divergence between US and Canada’s two-year rates is key for USD-CAD exchange rate. Canada’s 2 hikes in Q3 were not part of a sustained tightening sequence. Policy mix considerations also favor the greenback if US policy becomes more stimulative. Many observers saw Canada as one of the canaries in the coal mine, warning that the divergence theme was over.  The Bank of Canada did hike rates twice in...

USD/CHF EUR/CHF EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 24(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: Investing.com - Click to enlarge USD/JPY [embedded content] USD/JPY with Technical Indicators, October 23(see more posts on USD/JPY, ) - Click to enlarge EUR/USD [embedded content] EUR/USD with Technical Indicators, October 23(see more posts on EUR/USD, ) - Click to enlarge GBP/USD [embedded content] GBP/USD...

Charles Hugh Smith - Of Two Minds Blog joins "V" to discuss the move away from central banks utilizing cryptocurrency, how economic gain is realized by only by the top 1% and how blockchain could transform the internet for the good of society. We are political scientists, editorial engineers, and radio show developers drawn together by a shared vision of bringing Alternative news through digital mediums that evangelize our civil liberties. Please subscribe for the latest shows daily!...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.04% to 1.1578 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 23(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar is enjoying modest gains against most currencies as prospects of both tax reform and additional monetary tightening by the Fed carry over from last week. The strong showing of the Liberal Democrats in Japan, where the...

Summary: Busy week of economic data and central bank meetings, and reaction to Spanish developments and Japan and Czech elections. Focus below is on the Bank of Canada and ECB meetings and tax reform in the US. The biggest challenge to tax reform is unlikely on the committee level but on the floor votes, especially in the Senate, in a similar way the stymied health care reform. US and German 2-year rates are...

Scepticism of Sion’s Winter Olympics bid, the cost of travelling around the country and Switzerland’s addiction to sugar – here are some of the leading stories making Swiss newspapers on Sunday. Has the Sion Olympic bid committee shone a light on the true costs? The bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics has seriously underestimated the cost of security for the event, according to some observers. The SonntagsZeitung has...

Every year, Ronald-Peter Stoeferle and Mark J Valek of investment and asset management company Incrementum put together the report In Gold We Trust – 160-plus pages of charts and thoughts, mostly gold-related, on the state of the world’s finances. There’s so much to look at and consider. It’s a sort of digital equivalent of a coffee-table book. Yesterday I got an email from them, containing a “best of” – a compendium of...