SNB & CHF

Summary: The dollar is taking out a several month downtrend against the yen. The correlation between the yen and the S&P 500 has broken down. The US 2-year premium over Japan has steadily risen. One of the big stories in the foreign exchange market this year has been the strength of the Japanese yen. It is up 17.3% so far this year, despite negative interest rates through 10-years and among the worst...

Swiss public services are now under scrutiny from spies posing as customers, hired by the government to check the cleanliness of services and whether people get what they pay for. (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 on international events. For more articles, interviews and videos visit swissinfo.ch or subscribe to our YouTube channel:...

Swiss Franc The EUR/CHF has soared again. Later during the day, it has even achieved 1.0970. EUR-CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, October 04 2016. - Click to enlarge Federal Reserve UK Prime Minister May’s comments at the Tory Party Conference over the weekend played up the risk of what has been dubbed a hard Brexit and triggered a slide in sterling saw it fall to new 30-year+ low against the dollar just below $1.2760. A...

Swiss Franc After the sudden jump with SNB’s Q3 window dressing, the EUR/CHF is trending lower again. . - Click to enlarge FX Rates Sterling has a bad case of the Monday blues. Even the moon looks distraught. Prime Minister May has confirmed earlier suggestions that she will trigger Article 50 to formally begin its divorce proceedings from the EU at the end of Q1 17. Several officials have already hinted this time...

03.10.2016 09:15  – FSO, Economic Surveys (0353-1609-20) The Used Goods Question Retail sales in several countries like Germany, Italy, Japan and Switzerland continue to fall. In the United States they have strongly risen recently. We should remind readers, that used goods sold via Ebay or similar, are not contained in this statistics. Still they create economic value for the purchases. By mentality, Swiss, Germans...

 See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Are Bank Woes a Good Reason to Buy Silver? Last week, it was the Fed’s magic boosting up the price of silver. This week, the slow slide in the silver price resumed, going all week except during peak fear about the woes of Deutsche Bank. When it looked bleakest—and the potential size of the capital-eating fines was...

Which blocs/nations are most likely to face banking/liquidity crises in the next year? Hating the U.S. dollar offers the same rewards as hating a dominant sports team: it feels righteous to root for the underdogs, but it’s generally unwise to let that enthusiasm become the basis of one’s bets. Personally, I favor the emergence of non-state reserve currencies, for example, blockchain crypto-currencies or...

Clowns in the Coliseum DUBLIN – The presidential debate began long after our bedtime, here in Ireland. So we got up this morning, rubbed our eyes, and watched the highlights. “Lowlights” is perhaps a better way to describe it: two rascals making public spectacles of themselves, arguing about things that mostly don’t matter… posing, posturing, pretending. If we had our druthers, both candidates would lose. That is...

The truth is the rich are getting richer and everyone else is losing ground as inflation chews through stagnant incomes. This headline is risibly wrong on a number of counts. Most importantly, a notch up in median household income doesn’t mean “average Americans Just Got a Huge Income Boost”: It means that half of households in 2015 earned more than $56,516 and half earned less than $56,516. It does not mean every...

For decades, Switzerland had a reputation for bank secrecy that made it the most sought after tax haven for billionaires from around the globe.  But, after more than 80 years of secrecy, a series of bilateral agreements with countries around the world, including America’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), have forced the private-banking industry in Switzerland to embrace an entirely new era of transparency...