SNB & CHF

The dollar remains under pressure due to weak US retail sales and rising optimism on Brexit and the trade war Brexit negotiations remain tense and we should expect a higher than usual noise-to-signal ratio at this stage China said its goal is to stop the trade war and remove all tariffs US has a full data schedule; we remain constructive on the US economic outlook UK reported September retail sales; Sweden’s unemployment rate hit a 4-year high of 7.4% Australia...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.26% to 1.0983 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 17(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: A Brexit deal between the UK and the EU has been struck. Whether it can win Parliament’s approval is a horse of a different color. Meanwhile, US-Chinese relations continue to sour. The capital markets are narrowly mixed as investors await further developments. The MSCI Asia Pacific...

Gunvor was found to have taken no organisational measures to prevent corruption in its business activities (Keystone) The Geneva-based trading company Gunvor has been ordered to pay almost CHF94 million ($94.6 million), including a fine of CHF4 million over bribery in Africa. The commodities trader failed to prevent its employees and agents from bribing public officials between 2008 and 2011 in order to gain access to the petroleum markets in the Republic of Congo...

The pair remains under some selling pressure for the second straight session. The ongoing slide dragged it below a two-month-old ascending trend-channel. Bears might now aim towards challenging the 0.9900 round-figure mark. The USD/CHF pair extended this week’s rejection slide from the vicinity of the key parity mark and remained under some selling pressure for the second consecutive session. The ongoing slide to one-week lows has now dragged the pair below a...

We do not like Purchasing Power or Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) as measurement for currencies. For us, the trade balance decides if a currency is overvalued. Only the trade balance can express productivity gains, while the REER assumes constant productivity in comparison to trade partners. Who has read Michael Pettis, knows that a rising trade surplus may also be caused by a higher savings rate while the trade partners decided to spend more. This is partially...

Can Libra survive without partners such as Mastercard and Visa? (Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This Material May Not Be Published, Broadcast, Rewritten Or Redistribu) Facebook’s cryptocurrency payments project, Libra, has suffered a major blow with the withdrawal of seven key partners. But the Geneva-based Libra Association continues to battle on against a regulatory onslaught by adopting a charter and forming an executive team. Set in...

◆ “Gold is the perfect piggy bank – it’s the anchor of trust for the financial system” says the Central Bank of the Netherlands ◆ “If the system collapses, the gold stock can serve as a basis to build it up again” astutely and prudently observes the Dutch Central Bank ◆ The Dutch people “hold more than 600 tonnes of gold. A bar of gold always retains its value, crisis or no crisis” ◆ “Gold bolsters confidence in the stability of the central bank’s balance sheet and...

Despite the intraday pullback, the pair has managed to hold above 200-DMA. The near-term technical set-up support prospects for some dip-buying interest. The USD/CHF pair failed to capitalize on its intraday positive move and faced rejection near the key parity mark, albeit has still managed to hold above the very important 200-day SMA. Given the pair’s repeated bounce from a support marked by the lower end of a two-month-old ascending trend-channel, the near-term...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.06% to 1.1006 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 16(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Fading hopes that a Brexit agreement can be struck is seeing sterling trade broadly lower, while China’s demand that US tariffs be rescinded in exchange for a commitment to buy $40-$50 bln of US agriculture goods over two years, makes the handshake agreement less secure. At the same...

Maybe it’s my cheap seat or my general exhaustion, but the whole staged spectacle is beyond tiresome; I’ve had my fill. Let me me know when it’s over: yes, all of it: the impeachment, the trade dispute with China, U.S. involvement in Syria, the manic stock market rally and the 2020 election. I’m not interested in following every twist and turn of the endless trauma-drama because none of it changes anything: Swapping Pence for Trump changes nothing, and then swapping...