SNB & CHF

According to the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), China’s FX reserves amounted to USD3.14 trillion at end – December 2017, up USD20.7 billion from the previous month. This marks the 11th consecutive monthly increase in Chinese FX reserves since February 2017. In full – year 2017, Chinese FX reserves increased by USD129.4 billion, in contrast with a drop of USD512.7 billion in 2015 and USD320...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.20% to 1.174 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 18(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar rallied in the North American afternoon yesterday and the timing coincided with the release of the Fed’s Beige Book that saw several districts report wage and price pressures. The US 10-year yield moved toward toward 2.60%,...

The US Treasury market was consolidating yesterday’s 7.5 basis point jump in 10-year yields when Bloomberg’s headline hit. The claim was that Chinese officials are “wary of Treasuries”. Yields rose quickly to test 2.60% and the dollar moved lower. It is difficult to determine the significance of the claim as the Bloomberg story does not quote anyone. The “people familiar with the matter” who are cited are not...

Stans, Nidwalden. The canton offers the lowest corporation tax (10.1%) in Switzerland, and takes second place in the global ranking. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Switzerland remains an attractive tax destination for both companies and top earners in 2017, according to a survey of major global business locations published on Wednesday. But it warned planned US tax reform will increase competition. The BAK...

‘Digital Gold’ Bitcoin Flight To Safe Haven Physical Gold – Latest bitcoin, crypto crash causes gold coin and bar demand to surge– Bitcoin down 40% from high, Ripple down 50% and Ethereum down 30%– Ripple and ‘Digital gold’ Bitcoin fall past key psychological price levels– $300bn wiped from cryptocurrency fortunes in just 36 hours– New research says that there is ‘Price Manipulation in the Bitcoin Ecosystem’– Savvy...

La révolution numérique est une réalité qui envahit tous les jours plus les sphères publiques et privées…. Qu’en est-il du commerce de détails? Les visuels ci-dessous nous montrent d’abord que certaines habitudes d’achats dans les commerces traditionnels sont maintenues. C’est d’autant plus vrai que cette présentation, que nous offre Bloomberg, n’inclut pas les achats de voitures et de nourriture. Il est donc probable...

In the NZZ, Peter Fischer reports that SNB president Thomas Jordan rejects the Vollgeld initiative and stops short of endorsing the ‘reserves for all’ proposal. … wehrt sich die Nationalbank auch gegen Vorschläge aus akademischen Kreisen, die von der Nationalbank fordern, nicht mehr nur Banken, sondern auch direkt den Schweizer Bürgern elektronisches Zentralbankgeld zur Verfügung zu stellen. Am einfachsten ginge dies,...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.04% to 1.1766 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 17(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates After a shallow bounce in Asia and Europe yesterday, the dollar slipped lower in North American yesterday. Asia was happy to extend those dollar losses, and the greenback was pushed to marginal new lower in Asia, but has come back in the...

The combination of a falling dollar and rising US interest rates has sparked a concern never far from the surface about the foreign demand for US Treasuries. Moreover, as the Fed’s balance sheet shrinks, investors will have to step up their purchases. This Great Graphic was created by the Institute of International Finance (IIF). It is drawn from the US TIC data that tracks foreign holdings of US Treasuries. The most...

The Mother of All Blow-Offs We didn’t really plan on writing about investor sentiment again so soon, but last week a few articles in the financial press caught our eye and after reviewing the data, we thought it would be a good idea to post a brief update. When positioning and sentiment reach levels that were never seen before after the market has gone through a blow-off move for more than a year, it may well be that...