SNB & CHF

Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, May 24(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ) - Click to enlarge GBP/CHF Labour gains ground The Conservatives were in a very strong position following the election announcement. A snap election historically causes the currency in question to weaken, but on this occasion the opposite occurred. A Torie victory is deemed to be positive for the UK economy. Investor confidence grew and...

© Lisavan | Dreamstime.com A recent report classifies 570,000 people in Switzerland as poor. This number represents 7% of the population, and relates to 2015. In 2014, the same percentage was 6.6%. The report, which looks only at income, defines as poor a single person with income less than CHF 2,239 per month or a family of four with income below CHF 3,984 per month. Data from the survey of 7,500 households, around...

Summary: The dollar’s downside momentum faded today, but it has not shown that it has legs. Watch 96.45 in the DXY and $1.3055 in sterling. The US 2-year note yield is low, given expectations for overnight money. The US premium needs to widen. The US dollar’s downside momentum faded today. While one should not read much into it, it could be an early sign that the market has discounted the recent news stream,...

The Basel-based firm employs 120,000 people worldwide. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has announced that it plans to cut 500 jobs at its Basel headquarters in Switzerland over the next 18 months. It says it will also create 350 new posts, mostly in its biotech business. Novartis said in a statement on Thursday that it planned to cut up to 500 jobs in the Basel area or to relocate workers to other sites over the...

Tech is the umbrella word for all things fashionable to invest in right now. Take the recent flotation of Snap Inc. (parent company of teen and narcissists’ favourite app SnapChat), everyone wanted in on the $20 billion flotation. Snap is likely a sign of a tech bubble that will cost a lot of savers and investors huge amounts of money … again. Before putting your savings into the likes of SnapInc we think there are some...

The rebound in commodity prices is not difficult to understand, perhaps even sympathize with. With everything so depressed early last year, if it turned out to be no big deal in the end then there was a killing to be made. That’s what markets are supposed to do, entice those with liquidity to buy when there is blood in the streets. And if those speculators turn out to be wrong, then we are all much the wiser for their...

Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, May 23(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ) - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar cannot get out of its own way, it seems. With a light economic schedule, there is little to offset the continued drumbeat of troubling political developments. The latest turn, as reported first in the Washington Post, that President Trump asked heads of intelligence groups to also publicly deny...

The Swiss agriculture sector is “vulnerable” to competition, says the WTO. (Keystone) The European Union and the United States have criticised Switzerland for the over-protection of its agricultural sector. Responding to the questions raised at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO), Switzerland said it would make an effort to ease protections, on condition that other member states do likewise. The statements...

© Gyuszko | Dreamstime.com 20 Minutes. A pilot bio-monitoring project in Switzerland will measure traces of pollutants and micronutrient and endocrine disruptors in organic samples. According to 20 Minutes, the impact of certain chemical products worries the authorities. The pilot project was launched last week by the executive branch of Switzerland’s government, known as the Federal Council. Depending on the results, a...

The economic data releases since the last update were generally upbeat but markets are forward looking and the future apparently isn’t to their liking. Of course, it is hard to tell sometimes whether bonds, the dollar and stocks are responding to the real economy or the one people hope Donald Trump can deliver when he isn’t busy contradicting his communications staff. Politics has been front and center recently but...