SNB & CHF

Swiss Franc Currency Index The Swiss Franc continues to under-perform the dollar index in the month after Brexit.   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 40% of the SNB portfolio and of...

Status quo, as our generation know it, established in 1945 has plodded along ever since. It is true that it have had near death experiences several times, especially in August 1971 when the world almost lost faith in the global reserve currency and in 2008 when the fractional reserve Ponzi nearly consumed itself. While the recent Brexit vote seem to be just another near death experience we believe it says something...

  Meaningless Noise BALTIMORE – The Dow rose 250 points on Friday… putting it back near its all-time high. A “blow-out jobs report” was said to be the inspiration. Oh my… so many dots.. so little time. Friday’s jobs report said that 278,000 Americans found work in June – up from 11,000 in May.  This was considered such good news that investors rushed to buy stocks. At least, that was the line taken by the mainstream...

Since the UK voted to leave the EU, emerging market equities have outperformed equities from the developed markets.  This Great Graphic, composed on Bloomberg, shows the MSCI Emerging Market equities (yellow line) and the MSCI World Index of developed equities (white line). Both time series are indexed as to June 15, but they were at nearly identical levels as the UK voted.  The developed market equities fell more...

Growing numbers of Arab visitors to southern Switzerland were helping save the region’s tourist industry. But now a ‘burka ban’ is in force, which could turn many away. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) Italian-speaking Ticino became the first and only Swiss canton to introduce a ban on any face covering headgear, which came into effect on July 1. The first fine was handed out on the same day to a Swiss niqab-wearing Muslim from Zurich who travelled to Ticino in defiance of the law. Hotels in the region...

A new study on improvements to the army suggests opening conscription to women. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) Experts evaluating the challenges facing the Swiss conscription system after 2030 have suggested considering universal compulsory service. This could potentially include service in the army for women and for foreigners living in Switzerland. The study, released by the government on Thursday, looked at potential changes which could be made to take advantage of the needs of Swiss society and...

Basel police want prostitutes to respect the law when it comes to looking for business in the city. To do this, they’ve come up with an unusual solution. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) After complaints from people living in Basel’s red light district, the authorities marked out areas where prostitutes are allowed to stand with special green pictograms. The authorities estimate the numbers of sex workers in Basel to be around 800. Between 30 and 50 actually work on the streets, and the remainder work in...

When a request for asylum is rejected, the applicant is supposed to leave the country straight away. Not everybody does, and there are vast differences in how the cantons deal with this. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) In Renens in canton Vaud, around 100 rejected asylum seekers have been camping for months. When it comes to deporting rejected asylum seekers, Vaud is the most lax canton, followed by Geneva, Schaffhausen and Zug. Nine cantons are relatively strict. But the cantons of Aargau, Graubünden,...

Swatch Group AG said first-half profit fell by more than half — the most in at least 15 years — as demand for its watches in Hong Kong, France and Switzerland collapsed. © Radub85 | Dreamstime.com Sales fell about 12 percent, the Biel, Switzerland-based maker of Omega and Tissot timepieces said in an unscheduled statement on preliminary results. Analysts expected a 22 percent drop in net income and a 7 percent...

 Swiss Franc While the yen remained weak, the other major safe-haven, the Swiss Franc had gains. We often emphasized the main differences: The Swiss have a far higher trade surplus per capita The Swiss government does not do fiscal experiments like helicopter money, the SNB does only the monetary part. While the Swiss monetary stimulus is higher than the Japanese one. The effect of FX interventions is stronger than...