SNB & CHF

Unlocked boxes: Swiss banking secrecy is not what it used to be. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Switzerland’s highest court has ruled against the transfer of details of third parties such as bank employees or solicitors in cases of information handovers involving tax dodgers. Wednesday’s ruling by the Federal Court upheld an earlier decision in a case brought by a US expat in Switzerland who disputed the...

Summary Tensions on the Korean peninsula appear to be easing. Relations between Pakistan and the US have worsened. The Philippine central bank is tilting more hawkish. The ANC may consider removing Zuma from the presidency at the January 10 meeting of its National Executive Committee. Turkish banker Atilla was convicted of helping Iran evade US financial sanctions. Argentina sold $9 bln of dollar-denominated external...

Central banks are now trapped. In a nutshell, central banks are promising to “normalize” their monetary policy extremes in 2018. Nice, but there’s a problem: you can’t “normalize” markets that are now entirely dependent on extremes of monetary stimulus. Attempts to “normalize” will break the markets and the financial system. Let’s start with the core dynamic of the global economy and nosebleed-valuation markets:...

Erik Townsend welcomes Jeffrey Snider, Mark Yusko and Luke Gromen to MacroVoices. In part 2 of the 5 part s, Jeffrey Snider presents: -- The post 2007 U.S. Dollar shortage -- How does. Erik Townsend welcomes Jeffrey Snider, Mark Yusko and Luke Gromen to MacroVoices. In part 1 of the 5 part s, Jeffrey Snider presents: -- Overview of the big picture story -- Perspectives. Erik Townsend welcomes Jeffrey Snider, Mark Yusko and Luke Gromen to MacroVoices. In part 3 of the 5 part s, Mark Yusko...

Thanks for ing. Today's Guest: Charles Hugh Smith Websites: Of Two Minds Books: Get a Job, Build a Real Career. Why. Thanks for ing. Central Banks Have Manipulated The Markets Which Will Ultimately Crash Charles Hugh Smith ---------------------------------- $ Help Finance News reach 1000 subscribers: Thanks for ing. Today's Guest: Charles Hugh Smith Websites: Of Two Minds Books: Get a Job, Build a Real Career. Why. Thanks for ing. Central Banks Have Manipulated The Markets Which Will.

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.04% to 1.1753 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 05(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates As the US dollar finished last year, so too did it begin the New Year, and after extending its losses, the bears have paused. Technical factors had been stretched, but it appears to have been old-fashioned macroeconomic considerations to...

United States The headline US non-farm payrolls disappointed, rising by 148k instead of the consensus of 180k-200k. However, the other details were largely as expected and are unlikely to change views about the trajectory of Fed policy or the general direction of markets. It is a very much steady as she goes story. The headline miss is not really made up for by the upward revision in the November series from 228k to...

Keen to ride the digital wave: Switzerland is attracting many fintech startups (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The year 2017 saw a record number of businesses created in Switzerland, many of them centred in the booming ‘crypto valley’ region, according to online platform startups.ch. Some 43,416 businesses were created, said the information and advisory websiteexternal link, an increase of 5% on 2016 and an...

Cycles and Sentiment Another recurring pattern consists of the seasonally strong period in gold around the turn of the year, which is bisected by a mid to late December interim low in the gold price. An additional boost can be expected in January and Feburary from the strong seasonal uptrend in silver and platinum group metals as well (to see the seasonal PGM charts, scroll down to our addendum to this recent article...

There is no change to the risk budget this month. For the moderate risk investor the allocation to bonds is 50%, risk assets 45% and cash 5%. The extreme overbought condition of the US stock market persists so I will continue to hold a modest amount of cash. There are some minor changes within the portfolios but the overall allocation is unchanged. - Click to enlarge There have been two major developments since...