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After yesterday's algo-driven mad dash to close the S&P green both for the day and for the year following Fed minutes that came in shocking hawkish, the selling has continued overnight, led by the commodity complex as rate hike fears have pushed oil back down some 2% from yesterday's 7 month highs, which in turn has dragged global stocks lower to a six-week low, while pushing bond yields higher across developed nations as the market suddenly reprices the probability of a June/July rate...

Investec Switzerland. Swiss stocks are set to close higher this week, outperforming global equities on positive earnings releases and brighter inflation signals. Stock markets around experienced a mixed week as investors weighed Federal Reserve rate hike expectations against gloomy economic data out of the US  with more positive indicators out of China. © Jakub Krechowicz | Dreamstime.com Last Fridays US employment report showed that firms took on the fewest workers in...

Investec Switzerland. Shares of Zurich Insurance Group AG headed for the biggest gain in more than four years after Switzerland’s biggest insurer posted a first-quarter profit that beat analyst expectations. Source: Facebook – Zurich Switzerland The stock rose as much as 5.6 percent, and was trading 5.4 percent higher at 228 francs as of 11:24 a.m. in Zurich, paring losses this year to 12 percent. A close at this level would mark the biggest one-day gain since September...

During the months of March and April of 2016 we released a series of proprietary research reports indicating signficant weakneses that we found in the European banking system and released it for sale through the blockchain (reference The First Bank Likely to Fall in the Great European Banking Crisis). This was performed by the same macro forensic and fundamental analysis team that first warned about the pan-European sovereign debt crisis in 2009 and 2010 (reference Pan-European...

Things are increasingly upside down in the brave new centrally planned world: thanks to negative deposit rates central banks have put an explicit cost on saving, while in various instances, such as taking out a mortgage in Denmark and the Netherlands, the bank actually pays the borrower, thus rewarding living beyond one's means. Curiously, it was just a month ago when an offer was spotted in Germany offering a negative -1% rate on small consumer loans issued by Santander Bank.  ...

In what has been an approximate repeat of the Monday overnight session, global stocks and US futures rose around the world as oil prices climbed toward $44 a barrel, with risk-sentiment pushed higher by another plunge in the Yen which has now soared 300 pips since the Friday post-payroll kneejerk reaction, and was trading above 109.20 this morning. At the same time base metals regained some of Monday’s steep losses following Chinese CPI data that came in line while PPI declined for 50...

Investec Switzerland. Nestlé is by far the largest food company in the world. Its 335,000 employees produce more than 2,000 brands, manufactured in 436 factories across 85 countries. It’s Europe’s most valuable corporation, worth $240 billion, comfortably more than oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. Among the world’s 195 nations, it sells in 189. © Gvictoria | Dreamstime.com Nestlé’s impact on the history of how we eat is almost impossible to overstate. Sweets as we know them...

Investec Switzerland. Swiss stocks fell significantly this week, underperforming global equities, amid renewed global growth worries and a poor performance from financial heavyweights. Stock markets across the world tumbled after weaker-than-expected manufacturing data out of China revived fears around global growth prospects. © Huating | Dreamstime.com In the US, the future path of interest rate hikes remained in focus. Two regional Federal Reserve presidents said...

Investec Switzerland. The main players in Europe’s most hostile bid situation are digging in. Saint-Gobain said last week that its bitterly contested plan to take control of building materials rival Sika was still a strategic priority — even though the Swiss target’s board and minority shareholders are prepared for a multi-year fight. There are peaceful ways out of the situation, if only emotion wasn’t involved. © Zepherwind | Dreamstime.com Sika is controlled by...

Investec Switzerland. Swiss equities are expected to finish lower this week, underperforming global stocks after the Federal Reserve and the bank of Japan held off on policy changes, mirroring last weeks “wait and see” stance of the European Central Bank. © G0d4ather | Dreamstime.com U.S. central bankers skipped an interest-rate hike on Wednesday for the third straight meeting since kicking off its tightening cycle last year. According to the Banks statement, the Fed...