SNB & CHF

After trading overnight in Asia, Japan’s government bond market is within a hair’s breadth of setting new record lows. The 10-year JGB is within a basis point and a fraction of one while the 5-year JGB has only 2 bps to reach. It otherwise seems at odds with the mainstream narrative at least where Japan’s economy is concerned. Japan JGB, Jan 2014 - Jul 2019 - Click to enlarge Record lows in Germany, those seem to make sense. By every account, the German...

The USD/CHF pair struggled to sustain above 61.8% Fibo. level of the 0.9879-0.9714 recent slump and seems to have stalled this week’s recovery move from the 0.9700 neighbourhood. The intraday downtick remained cushioned near the 0.9800 handle, which coincides with 100/200-hour SMA confluence region and should act as a key pivotal point for intraday traders. Meanwhile, neutral technical indicators on hourly/daily charts haven’t been supportive of any firm near-term...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen to 1.0872 or by 0.09%. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, August 28(see more posts on EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The capital markets have turned quiet. There have been no more headline bombs about trade, and China set the dollar’s reference rate much lower than projected. Asia Pacific equities were mixed. Hong Kong, China, India, and Singapore were on the downside, while Taiwan,...

Switzerland is ploughing ahead with its plans to become a global crypto leader. Facebook takes on global finance. But its proposed digital currency Libra frightens central banks and regulators. Below the radar, Switzerland launches its own skirmish. Two local crypto-finance pioneers this week became the first to win banking licences. Previously famous for its secretive private banks, the affluent Alpine state is becoming a wheeling and dealing hub for electronic...

Swiss bank customers do not easily change their habits. Swiss banks are turning their attention to providing more digital services for customers, but their progress has been slow. This may have something to do with new technology upstarts struggling to gain significant traction thus far in Switzerland, according to a new study. Once financial technology (fintech) innovation properly takes off in the over-crowded banking sector, the competition may well cause some...

The broad-based dollar rally remains intact despite the market’s overly dovish take on the Fed We still believe markets are vastly overestimating the Fed’s capacity to ease in 2019 and 2020 What’s clear is that the liquidity story is not enough to sustain EM MSCI EM FX is on track to test the September 2018 low near 1575 and then the April 2017 low near 1568 Our 1-rated (strongest fundamentals) grouping for Q3 2019 consists of TWD, PHP, CNY, THB, and KRW Our...

The Chicago Fed’s National Activity Index (NAI) fell to -0.36 in July. That’s down from a +0.10 in June. By itself, the change from positive to negative tells us very little, as does the absolute level below zero. What’s interesting to note about this one measure is the average but more so its rate of change. The index itself is a product of econometric research. Economists had been searching for an alternative to the unemployment rate in order to increase the...

Over its 10 years of existence, Bitcoin adoption has been just like its price—up and down. At this point in time, it’s safe to say that the adoption of our favourite cryptocurrency has never been higher. Since adoption is so high, it has never been easier to buy bitcoin (with hundreds of payment methods available on peer-to-peer marketplaces). Concrete evidence of bitcoin adoption: banks While banks used to be thought of as bitcoin’s main antagonist, they have become...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.44% to 1.0912 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, August 27(see more posts on EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Hope triumphed over realism yesterday, and realism is fighting back toward. Asia Pacific markets, however, traded on the echo from the recovery in North America on Monday. The MSCI Asia Pacific recouped part of yesterday’s drop, led by Chinese markets. Hong Kong was the main...

“Perhaps they think that they will exercise power for the generall good, but that is what all those with power have believed. Power is evil in itself, regardless of who exercises it.” – Ludwig von Mises, Nation, State, and Economy After the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy U-turn earlier this year and the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in a decade, mainstream investors and analysts believe that holding rates lower and for...