SNB & CHF

At the end of January, only a month after the official end of the QE program of the European Central Bank (ECB), its President Mario Draghi told the European Parliament’s committee that the central bank could resume its bond purchasing, in a questionable effort to assuage concerns over the impact of the policy change. As Europe’s economy flashes increasingly bright warning signs, doubts are multiplying over the...

Building a tank at the Swiss defence contractor RUAG (Keystone) Swiss companies last year exported government-approved war materiel to 64 countries with a total value of CHF510 million ($510 million), 14% more than the previous year. Germany was the largest customer, taking deliveries worth CHF118 million, followed by Denmark, the US, Romania and Italy, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said on...

For years, realtors have been waiting for more housing inventory. It had become an article of faith, what was restraining a full-blown recovery was the lack of units available. The level of resales like construction was up, but still way, way less than it was now fourteen years past the prior peak despite sufficient population growth to have absorbed the previous bubble’s overbuilding. All the way back in March 2017,...

The 125-year-old Swiss private bank is ready for some crypto action. (© Keystone / Ennio Leanza) One of Switzerland’s largest banks, Julius Baer, has entered the cryptoassets world by announcing a partnership with budding crypto bank start-up SEBA. While other Swiss banks, such as Vontobel, Falcon and Swissquote, are already active in the space, Julius Baer’s entrance has attracted particular attention. The obvious...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.02% at 1.1363 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 26(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The increased likelihood that Brexit is delayed and the possibility of a second referendum is helping lift sterling. As has been the case for most of the time since the June 2016 referendum, the prospects of a softer and/or later...

Tourists in front of the Lion statue in Lucerne (Keystone) The number of overnight stays in Swiss hotels increased by 3.8% last year to 38.8 million. Domestic tourism also registered a rise with 17.7 million stays by Swiss guests – up 2.7% on the previous year – Switzerland Tourismexternal link said at its annual press conference on Tuesday. It also welcomed the 3.7% increase in European guests but added that in...

Measles, a potentially deadly virus, is still breaking out in Switzerland, despite the availability of vaccinations. --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on Switzerland and to provide a Swiss perspective on international events. For more articles, interviews and videos visit swissinfo.ch or subscribe to our YouTube channel: Website: http://www.swissinfo.ch Channel: http://www.youtube.com/swissinfovideos...

After a difficult second half of 2018, the outlook for Germany’s economy and sovereign bonds turns brighter. A host of factors weighed on German growth in H2 2018: a sharp slowdown in global demand on the external side and several transitory factors on the domestic side impacted industrial activity. At the same time, the 10-year German Bund yield has been trending downward. The steep fall in the oil price in late 2018,...

Unless the Fed is going to start buying millions of homes outright, prices are going to fall to what buyers can afford. There are two generalities that can be applied to all asset bubbles: 1. Bubbles inflate for longer and reach higher levels than most pre-bubble analysts expected 2. All bubbles burst, despite mantra-like claims that “this time it’s different” The bubble burst tends to follow a symmetrical reversal of...

Feb.25 -- Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex, and Kathryn Rooney Vera, head of global research at Bulltick, discuss how U.S.-China trade talks impact global currencies. They speak on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas."