SNB & CHF

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.04% to 1.1753 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 05(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates As the US dollar finished last year, so too did it begin the New Year, and after extending its losses, the bears have paused. Technical factors had been stretched, but it appears to have been old-fashioned macroeconomic considerations to...

United States The headline US non-farm payrolls disappointed, rising by 148k instead of the consensus of 180k-200k. However, the other details were largely as expected and are unlikely to change views about the trajectory of Fed policy or the general direction of markets. It is a very much steady as she goes story. The headline miss is not really made up for by the upward revision in the November series from 228k to...

Keen to ride the digital wave: Switzerland is attracting many fintech startups (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The year 2017 saw a record number of businesses created in Switzerland, many of them centred in the booming ‘crypto valley’ region, according to online platform startups.ch. Some 43,416 businesses were created, said the information and advisory websiteexternal link, an increase of 5% on 2016 and an...

Cycles and Sentiment Another recurring pattern consists of the seasonally strong period in gold around the turn of the year, which is bisected by a mid to late December interim low in the gold price. An additional boost can be expected in January and Feburary from the strong seasonal uptrend in silver and platinum group metals as well (to see the seasonal PGM charts, scroll down to our addendum to this recent article...

There is no change to the risk budget this month. For the moderate risk investor the allocation to bonds is 50%, risk assets 45% and cash 5%. The extreme overbought condition of the US stock market persists so I will continue to hold a modest amount of cash. There are some minor changes within the portfolios but the overall allocation is unchanged. - Click to enlarge There have been two major developments since...

Gold Has Best Year Since 2010 With Near 14% Gain In 2017 – Gold posted second straight annual gain in USD in 2017– Gold in 2017: up 13.6% USD, up 2.7% GBP, down 1.4% EUR– 2017 is gold’s best year since 29.5% gain in 2010– Strong performance despite rate hikes and stock bubble  – India’s gold imports surged 67% in 2017, Turkish, Chinese demand strong – Gold finished 2017 with longest rally since June 2016 – 2018:...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.37% to 1.1755 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 04(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar is sporting a softer profile across the board, though remaining largely in the ranges seen over the past couple of sessions. At the same time, the news stream suggests that the global synchronized growth cycle strengthened...

- Click to enlarge To many, the question about the fate of the third major dollar rally since the end of Bretton Woods was resolved last year. The dollar fell broadly. It marked the end the greenback’s ride higher. However, I remain less convinced that this is really the case.  And that is what I discuss in this three-minute clip from Bloomberg’s What’d You Miss. What I focused on (here) was two-fold.  First, that...

The weakening of the franc against the euro in 2017 boosted Swiss exporters. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Eight out of ten Swiss business executives anticipate a positive economic outlook for the country in 2018, according to an annual survey carried out by the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. Is it a sign that moods are changing after a 2017 that many would describe as turbulent? Or rather another indication of...

He's one of Switzerland's most famous 19th-century artists. Yet he's barely known to the general public in the US. Now the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery is presenting Ferdinand Hodler to its visitors in Washington. In this video, curator Robyn Asleson talks about the element of ecstasy in Hodler's work. (SRF/swissinfo.ch) --- 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...