SNB & CHF

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.01% to 1.1698 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 13(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Sterling’s 0.6% loss (@ ~$1.3120) is co-leading the downside in the firm US dollar environment, having to share that role with the New Zealand dollar today, where a weaker manufacturing PMI (52.8 from 54.4) is taking a toll. Both sterling and...

Short-term rebound in the UK, driven by services. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published this week a new rolling monthly estimate of UK GDP. The release pointed to a rebound of growth in Q2 (quarterly data will be published on August 8). According to the ONS, the rolling three-month growth to end-May was 0.2%, compared to 0% in the three months to end-April (see chart below). Looking at the details, the...

The WIPO annual innovation report is one of many that features Switzerland highly Switzerland retained its crown as the world’s most innovative country for the eighth year in a row, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) – the global intellectual property agency. Switzerland came top of the innovation list ahead of the Netherlands, Sweden, Britain, Singapore, the United States, Finland,...

When it comes to the stock market and the corporate cash flow condition, our attention is usually drawn to stock repurchases. With good reason. These controversial uses of scarce internal funds are traditionally argued along the lines of management teams identifying and correcting undervalued shares. History shows, conclusively, that hasn’t really been true. Last year’s tax reform law was meant ideally to spur...

The publication of the Bitcoin white paper immediately after the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008 is hardly a mere coincidence. The financial collapse especially touched on one crucial question: Money talks, but who talks money if you will? According to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym behind Bitcoin, it’s the world’s central and commercial banks which rule over our money. As a careful analysis of the...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.65% to 1.1698 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 12(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The dollar has broken out against the Japanese yen. Despite the global equity drop and decline in US yields, which often underpin the yen, the yen fell to its lowest level since early January yesterday and is continuing to sell-off today. The...

R & D expenses of the Confederation at record high 12 July 2018 (FSO) – In 2017, the Confederation spent 2.2 billion Swiss francs on research and experimental development (R & D), an increase of 7% compared to the last survey in 2015. The biggest share of this record amount was R & D contributions for research activities. At the same time, federal R & D personnel fell by 4% to 875 full-time...

The real battle isn’t between a cartoonish vision or a dystopian nightmare–it’s between decentralized ownership and control of these technologies and centralized ownership and control. The hype about artificial intelligence (AI) and its cousins Big Data and Machine Learning is ubiquitous, and largely unexamined. AI is going to change the world by freeing humankind from most of its labors, etc. etc. etc. Let’s start by...

Some older employees fear being axed from the workplace because they cost to much to employ. A lobby group representing the interests of older workers has launched a people’s initiative to reform the occupational pension system to reduce the incentive for employers to sack people once they pass the age of 50. The Workfair 50+external link group announced on Tuesday its intention of forcing a nationwide vote on the...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.06% to 1.1639 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 11(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US took the first step in making good its threat to put a 10% tariff on $200 bln of Chinese goods in response to the PRC retaliating for the 25% tariff on $34 bln of its exports. The US provided a list of products that will get the new...