SNB & CHF

Is the Fed’s monetary tightening about over? Maybe, maybe not but there does seem to be some disagreement between Jerome Powell and his Vice Chair, Richard Clarida. Powell said just a little over a month ago that the Fed Funds rate was still “a long way from neutral” and that the Fed may ultimately need to go past neutral. Clarida last week said the FF rate was close to neutral and that future hikes should be “data...

Switzerland’s growth unexpectedly contracted in the third quarter, pushing down our GDP growth forecast for 2018. Recent softening in the euro area also casts doubts about the pace of monetary tightening by the SNB. The strong growth enjoyed by the Swiss economy since Q1 2017 came suddenly to an end in Q3 18, when real GDP shrank unexpectedly by 0.2% q-o-q (-0.9% q-o-q annualised). This is much lower than consensus...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.39% at 1.1337 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, November 29 Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The biggest US equity advance since Q1 has helped lift global markets today. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose for the fourth session, and nearly all the bourses in the region rallied with the notable exception of China and Hong Kong. Almost all the sectors in Europe are...

Switzerland’s GDP fell by 0.2% in the 3rd quarter of 2018 due to both the industrial and service sectors. On the expenditure side, domestic demand and foreign trade had a negative impact. Switzerland’s GDP fell by 0.2% in the 3rd quarter of 2018, after climbing by 0.7% in the previous quarter. 1 The strong, continuous growth phase enjoyed by the Swiss economy for one and a half years was suddenly interrupted....

Not quite down-at-the-heel (© KEYSTONE / GAETAN BALLY) On average, heads of large Swiss corporations have suffered a marked drop in salary. In 2017, the median wage of the heads of 20 leading companies dropped by nearly 30%. According to the executive compensation report published by consulting firm PwCexternal link on Tuesday, the median salary of the heads of 20 firms in the leading SMI index fell from CHF7.7 million...

It is definitely one period that they got wrong. Still, IHS Markit’s Composite PMI for the US economy has been one of the better forward-looking indicators around. Tying to real GDP, this blend of manufacturing and services sentiment has predicted the general economic trend in the United States pretty closely. The latter half of 2015 was the big exception. For November 2015, the composite index jumped to 56.1 from 55.0...

Click here for the full transcript: http://financialrepressionauthority.com/2018/11/28/the-roundtable-insight-charles-hugh-smith-on-how-why-financial-repression-continues/

Bannockburn Chief Market Strategist Marc Chandler on the outlook for stocks and the latest GDP data.

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.10% at 1.1262 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, November 28(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Global capital markets are relatively calm as investors gird for drama. The Bank of England reports its assessment of the impact of Brexit and the stress tests a little before Fed Chair Powell speaks at midday in NY. The G20 meeting...

Back in August 2 we reported of a historic event for China’s economy: for the first time in its modern history, China’s current account balance for the first half of the year had turned into a deficit. And while the full year amount was likely set to revert back to a modest surplus, it was only a matter of time before one of the most unique features of China’s economy – its chronic current account surplus – was gone for...