SNB & CHF

Holiday-weekend traffic has been causing long tailbacks at both ends of the Gotthard tunnel in central Switzerland. Reports of two-hour jams on Saturday may re-surface debates about traffic in the region. Southbound traffic waits to enter the Gotthard tunnel.(Keystone) As Swiss National Day approaches on 1 August, this weekend saw large movements of traffic...

The CRB Index gapped higher today and it follows a gap higher opening on Tuesday, which has not been filled. Today’s gains lift the commodity index to a trendline drawn off the January and February highs and catches the high from late May. It intersects today near 181.35 and the high has been a little over 181.17. This is depicted on the Great Graphic made on Bloomberg, with five and 20-day moving averages added....

‘Mother of all debt bubbles’ keeps gold in focus Global debt alert: At all time high of astronomical $217 T India imports “phenomenal” 525 tons in first half of 2017 Record investment demand – ETPs record $245B in H1, 17 Investors, savers should diversify into “safe haven” gold Gold good ‘store of value’ in coming economic contraction Gold’s medium- to long-term investment case, I believe, looks even brighter. Many...

The country voted narrowly in 2009 to ban the building of minarets. (Keystone) Switzerland should take steps to ensure that people’s initiatives do not contravene international law, the United Nations Human Rights Committee says. It notably called for the repeal of a Swiss vote banning the construction of minarets. The recommendations, released Thursday, came after the fourth periodic review of Switzerland by the...

Summary: Fundamental driver, divergence is still intact. The dollar’s losses have barely met the minimum retracements of a bull market. Sentiment may be exaggerating the positive developments in Europe and the negative developments in the US. The US dollar is sitting near multi-month lows against the major European currencies and the dollar bloc. Where does this leave our strategic view of the third...

International polls rank Bern as one of the safest capital cities to live in on the planet. swissinfo.ch found out what it means to feel secure there.  The city, with its thriving economy and excellent infrastructure, seems to offer a great quality of life. People appear to be pretty relaxed about personal safety, and burglar alarms on cars or houses are not commonplace. People often leave their belongings unattended while going for a swim in the pool or the river, while supermarkets leave...

Easy credit offered by UK banks is endangering “everyone else in the economy” UK banks are “dicing with the spiral of complacency” again Bank of England official believes household debt is good in moderation Household debt now equals 135% of household income Now costs half of average income to raise a child Real incomes not keeping up with real inflation 41% of those in debt are in full-time work £1.537 trillion owed...

Summary: Swiss franc weakness is a function of the demand for euros. SNB indicates it will lag behind the other major central banks in normalization process. Easing of political anxiety in Europe is also negative for the franc. The Swiss franc is trading at its lowest level against the euro since the Swiss National Bank surprised the world by lifting the currency cap in early 2015.  This week’s move has been...

Summary: Little new in FOMC statement. Seems consistent with a Sept announcement to begin reducing the balance sheet in Oct. USD sold off as if reflecting sentiment held in bay until the statement was out of the way. The FOMC statement reads very much like the June statement. There were some minor tweaks in the first paragraph that discusses the broad economic performance since the last FOMC statement. There...

More than half of the objects left on Swiss trains were reunited with their owners (Keystone) A glass eye, wedding dress and fakir costume were among the 127,000 items passengers left behind on Swiss trains last year. Wheelchairs, prostheses and dentures counted among the unusual objects on the list, which was dominated by clothes and mobile phones. Large sums of money were also found but the most valuable misplaced...