Swatch Group AG said first-half profit fell by more than half — the most in at least 15 years — as demand for its watches in Hong Kong, France and Switzerland collapsed. © Radub85 | Dreamstime.com Sales fell about 12 percent, the Biel, Switzerland-based maker of Omega and Tissot timepieces said in an unscheduled statement on preliminary results. Analysts expected a 22 percent drop in net income and a 7 percent...
Read More »FX Daily, July 15: Sterling and Yen Remain Key Drivers in FX
Swiss Franc While the yen remained weak, the other major safe-haven, the Swiss Franc had gains. We often emphasized the main differences: The Swiss have a far higher trade surplus per capita The Swiss government does not do fiscal experiments like helicopter money, the SNB does only the monetary part. While the Swiss monetary stimulus is higher than the Japanese one. The effect of FX interventions is stronger than...
Read More »Swiss stocks higher on stimulus bet
SMI last Week The Swiss Market Index (SMI) is set to finish this week higher tracking equity market gains around the world as investors begin to anticipate a new wave of economic stimulus from central banks. Bonds Swiss Bond yields remained under zero, even until the duration of 30 years. Swiss Company News In Switzerland, economic news was light. Data showed that producer and import prices continued to decline...
Read More »FX Daily, July 14: Will BOE Ease on May Day?
Swiss Franc The euro-Swiss is moving back to reality, after the risk-on run in the beginning of the week. The continued yen weakening is slightly negative for the franc given that some algorithms correlate the two safe-haven currencies. Click to enlarge. United Kingdom After a nearly three weeks of turmoil following the UK referendum, there is now a sense of order returning to UK politics. Two elements of the new...
Read More »Great Graphic: If You Think Sterling has Bottomed, Where may it Go?
Summary: Many think sterling has bottomed. A number of technical factors point to potential toward $1.42. Fundamental considerations do not appear as supportive as technicals. With the Bank of England apparently surprising the market more than one might have expected, given the split surveys, many are thinking sterling has bottomed. If it has bottomed, where could it go? A number of technical...
Read More »“It’s Prohibited By Law” – A Problem Emerges For Japan’s “Helicopter Money” Plans
Over the past four days, risk assets have been on a tear, led by the collapsing Yen and soaring Nikkei, as the market has digested daily news that – as we predicted last week – Bernanke has been urging Japan to become the first developed country to unleash the monetary helicopter, in which the central banks directly funds government fiscal spending, most recently with an overnight report that Bernanke has pushed...
Read More »Central Bank Wonderland is Complete and Now Open for Business — The Epocalypse Has Fully Begun
The following article by David Haggith was first published on the Great Recession Blog. Summer vacation is here, and the whole global family has arrived at Central-Bank Wonderland, the upside-down, inside-out world that banksters and their puppet politicians call “recovery.” Everyone is talking about it as wizened traders puzzle over how stocks and bonds soared, hand-in-hand, in face of the following list of economic...
Read More »BOE Surprises by Doing Nothing, but Tips August Action
Summary: BOE neither cut rates not announced a new asset purchase plan. Sterling rallied hard. However, the BOE indicated an August ease and I look for sterling to pare knee-jerk gains. The Bank of England surprised many, if not most, participants by not changing policy. There was no rate cut and no asset purchase plan. However, there can be little doubt that the BOE will take action next month. The minutes...
Read More »Germany Sells First Ever Negative-Yielding 10Y Treasury, Corporate Bonds
Negative for 10 Years Overnight, we previewed what was about to be a historic for the eurozone bond auction, when this morning Germany sold its first ever 10Y bonds with a zero coupon. As it turned out the issue was historic in another way as well: with the prevailing 10Y bond trading well in negative yield territory, it was largely expected that today’s bond auction would likewise issue at a negative yield, and...
Read More »Swiss Producer and Import Price Index, June 2016: +0.1 percent MoM, -1.0 percent YoY
14.07.2016 09:15 – FSO, Prices (0353-1607-00) Producer and Import Price Index in June 2016 0.1% rise in Producer and Import Price Index Neuchâtel, 14.07.2016 (FSO) – The Producer and Import Price Index rose in June 2016 by 0.1% compared with the previous month, reaching 99.9 points (base December 2015 = 100). Whereas the Producer Price Index declined by 0.2%, the Import Price Index rose by 0.8%. The slight increase...
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