SNB & CHF

Swiss Franc Speculators were net short CHF in January 2015, shortly before the end of the peg, with 26.4K contracts. Then again in December 2015, when they expected a Fed rate hike, with 25.5K contracts. The biggest short CHF, however, happened in June 2007, when speculators were net short 80K contracts. Shortly after, the U.S. subprime crisis started. The carry trade against CHF collapsed. The...

The Used Goods Question Retail sales in several countries like Germany, Japan and Switzerland continue to fall or they remain steady for years. In the United States they have strongly risen recently. We should remind readers, that used goods sold via Ebay or similar, are not contained in this statistics. Still they create economic value for the purchases. By mentality, Swiss, Germans or Japanese pay more attention so...

Swiss Franc Switzerland Retail Sales YoY, March 2017(see more posts on Switzerland Retail Sales, ) Source: Investing.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Many financial centers are closed for May. Japanese markets were open today, but will be closed for three sessions beginning Wednesday for the Golden Week celebrations. The US dollar is narrowly mixed. The yen is the weakest of the majors, off about 0.3% as the...

Summary: US jobs and auto sales data may be more important than the FOMC meeting. Norway and Australia’s central bank meets. Neither is expected to change policy. All three large countries that reported Q1 GDP figures last week – US, UK, France – disappointed expectations. A Federal Reserve meeting always draws market interest, as investors are on guard for policy signals. However, the statement from this...

Swiss Franc Currency Index Trade-weighted index Swiss Franc, April 29(see more posts on Swiss Franc Index, ) Source: markets.fx.xom - Click to enlarge Swiss Franc Currency Index (3 years) The Swiss Franc index is the trade-weighted currency performance (see the currency basket)On a three years interval, the Swiss Franc had a weak performance. The dollar index was far stronger. The dollar makes up 33% of the...

Stock Markets EM FX ended last week on a mixed note.  Indeed, the week and the month were also very much mixed for EM, reflecting a variety of global and country-specific drivers impacting these countries.  This week’s US jobs data could bring Fed tightening back as a major driver for EM.   We will also get the first snapshots of trade in April from Korea and Brazil, as well as Caixin PMI readings for China.  Official...

Gold bullion imports into China via main conduit Hong Kong more than doubled month-on-month in March, data showed on Tuesday as reported by Reuters. Net-gold imports by the world’s top gold consumer through the port of Hong Kong rose to 111.647 tonnes in March from 47.931 tonnes in February, according to data emailed to Reuters by the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department. China’s net-gold imports rose to its best...

© Totalpics | Dreamstime.com 20 Minutes. In Switzerland, more than a million people moved house in 2015, 12.1% of the population. The figure has never be higher, according to a report called Immo-Monitoring published by Wüest Partner. The home moving covered around 490,000 dwellings. Of those who moved, 344,000 stayed in the same commune (Gemeinde) while the other 659,000 changed municipality. One quarter of the total...

Summary: The trade tensions between the US and Canada set the Canadian dollar to lows for the year. The dollar’s downside momentum against the Mexican peso has eased. The Canadian dollar looks attractive not against the US dollar but against the peso. The Trump Administration has switched gears.   During the campaign through the inauguration,  Trump picked on Mexico.  The rhetoric and threats drove the peso to...

If you need some evidence that the echo-bubble in housing is global, take a look at this chart of Sweden’s housing bubble. A funny thing often occurs after a mania-fueled asset bubble pops: an echo-bubble inflates a few years later, as monetary authorities and all the institutions that depend on rising asset valuations go all-in to reflate the crushed asset class. Take a quick look at the Case-Shiller Home Price Index...