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Investec Switzerland. Source: UBS Risks to the Swiss property market remained elevated in the second quarter of 2016, with rock-bottom interest rates propping up demand for residential assets to be rented out for investment purposes. Still, UBS Group AG’s index experienced a “slight” decrease in the period, according to economists Matthias Holzhey and Claudio Saputelli. That’s because of a slowdown in the pace of mortgage growth and a 0.6 percent decline in home prices on an...

Submitted by Alice Salles via The AntiMedia.org,  This year’s Olympics have a particularly romantic setting: Rio de Janeiro. In the 1950s and 60s, Rio’s most prominent artists were international stars, which made the popularity of “Bossa Nova” the perfect opportunity for Brazilians to share their culture and approach to life with the world. But throughout the following decades, Brazil changed considerably in the eyes of foreigners. It became the land...

The meltup continues with the S&P500 set to open at new all time highs as futures rise 0.2% overnight, with European, Asian stocks higher, as job data pushed MSCI Asia Pacific Index towards highest close since Aug. 2015. Germany, U.K. economic data seen positive, with dollar, oil rising, and gold declining. Global equities advanced with commodities and emerging markets on speculation the U.S. economy is strong enough to sustain growth while only triggering a gradual increase in interest...

Investec Switzerland. The Swiss Market Index is set to close slightly higher this week, outperforming global equities thanks to defensive heavyweights such as Nestlé and Novartis. © Alan Gignoux | Dreamstime.com Pessimism hit European shares at the beginning of the week as sliding oil prices and bank stress test results helped revive concerns over the strength of the recovery and stability of the financial sector. The bank stress tests results showed most of the region’s...

Investec Switzerland. The value of the Swiss National Bank’s U.S. stock portfolio jumped to a record in June, helped by equity market gains. © Vividrange | Dreamstime.com The holdings climbed to $61.8 billion from $54.5 billion at the end of March, according to calculations by Bloomberg based on the central bank’s regulatory filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and published on Wednesday. SNB spokesman Walter Meier declined to comment on the filing, which is...

Silver kangaroo coins have seen sales surge to over 10 million coins which is double the expected demand for the year. Silver Kangaroo Coins 1 oz (2016) Introduced to the market less than 11 months ago in September 2015 at a launch attended by GoldCore, sales of the new release Perth Mint’s 2016 Australian Kangaroo 1 ounce silver bullion coin were anticipated to reach 5 million coins in their introductory first year. Yet sales of the silver coins have already surged to a...

The Economist invented the Big Mac index in 1986 as a tongue-in-cheek guide to currency valuations. Because the well-known burger is the same throughout much of the world, the magazine thought it could be used as a measure of how over or undervalued a currency was. An overpriced burger suggests an overvalued currency and a cheap one an undervalued currency. © Mirko Vitali | Dreamstime.com As it did last year, Switzerland topped the chart this year with the world’s most expensive Big Macs. At...

The Trump and Clinton election is set to be one of the "ugliest" and "messiest" U.S. elections ever, astute gold analyst Frank Holmes warned this week. He believes this is a reason to own gold and will be one of the factors that will see a resumption of gold's bull market after the summer doldrums which we explore below. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech at the Republican National Convention on July 21, 2016 (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) Gold...

Investec Switzerland. UBS Group AG beat analysts’ second-quarter profit estimates and said it’s on track to cut costs by 2.1 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion) through 2017, with Chief Executive Officer Sergio Ermotti struggling with a slump at the wealth management and securities-trading units. © Denis Linine | Dreamstime.com Net income slipped to 1.03 billion francs from 1.2 billion francs a year ago, the Zurich-based bank said in a statement Friday. That beat the 668...

Investec Switzerland. The Swiss Market Index and global stock markets failed to extend last week’s rally after the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan left rates unchanged and gave mixed messages about the global economic outlook. © Josefkubes | Dreamstime.com Japanese shares received a short-term boost after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s announced plans of a 28 trillion yen ($265 billion) economic stimulus drive, including a 13 trillion yen fiscal spending package for...