SNB & CHF

Overview: Anxiety is running high. Rather than ease its Covid restrictions, a surge in cases is seeing more areas in China come under restrictions. The US reports CPI and of the ten reports this year, seven of them have been stronger than expected. The turmoil in the crypto space has gotten noticed even by those not involved. Asia Pacific bourses fell, led by Hong Kong, and Europe’s Stoxx 600 is off for a second day. US equity futures are slightly firmer. US and...

Christie’s said an unidentified Asian buyer snapped up the diamond. © Keystone / Martial Trezzini A pear-shaped 18-carat pink diamond billed as a rarity has sold at a Geneva auction for CHF28.4 million ($28.8 million), including fees and taxes. The “Fortune Pink” fancy vivid pink stone, said to be the largest of its kind and shape to go on the block, headlined Christie’s latest Geneva sale of jewellery. It had been expected to fetch between $25 million and $35...

In a recent essay, I explained how over time the US abused its responsibility to control the supply of dollars, the world’s premier reserve currency for settling international trade accounts among nations. This abrogation of its duties is leading to the likely adoption of a new reserve currency, commodity based and controlled not by one nation but by members, all watchful that the currency is not inflated. Let us continue the analogy of an individual receiving a...

The storm warnings are up in Florida, and have been up across the monetary system for some time. Massive and unprecedented curve inversions point to some as-yet unidentified economic and financial hurricane. Conducting a survey of global foreign currency reserves, there's already been huge destruction closing in on a trillion. And if what curves are pricing is accurate, worse to come, what does that look like when a trillion dollars destroyed is the prelude? Eurodollar University's Money...

Switzerland’s largest private railway operator, Rhaetian Railway (RhB), set a new world record for the longest passenger train on a spectacular narrow gauge track. The train – comprising 100 carriages for a total length of 1,910 metres - travelled for 25 kilometres on the Albula/Bernina route from Preda to Alvaneu in canton Graubünden in southeast Switzerland. It comprised 25 newly delivered train units, or 100 carriages, making a total length of 1,910 metres. On its journey...

The PBOC in October '19 estimated that 70% of Chinese household wealth is tied up in real estate of one kind or another. China's economy had been heavily investment oriented with a lot focused on residential dwellings. Xi Jinping's "common prosperity" is therefore a direct threat to the financial wellbeing of the vast majority of urban households (thus enforcing draconian "pandemic" policies to "gently" remind them they don't get a say) with fallout already...

Switzerland has built a reputation for nurturing a new industry based on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Experts give their take on the pros and cons of the fledgling ‘Crypto Nation’. More than 1,000 blockchain companies, supporting 6,000 jobs, have set anchor in Switzerland, encouraged by the welcoming political and legal infrastructure. But other countries are raising their game, determined to entice the world’s best technology innovators to their realms....

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen raised the issue of Treasury buybacks in October. This wasn't some random thought, primary dealers have been agitating for them since summer. Given what happened in last September, it is understandable the heat has been turned way up. I'll tell you why and what's really going on here - as it has been since Mar ;20. Spoiler: OTR. Eurodollar University's Money & Macro Analysis Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffSnider_AIP https://www.eurodollar.university...

Switzerland’s consumer price index (CPI) remained stable in October 2022 compared with the previous month, reported Switzerland’s Federal Statistical Office (FSO) this week. Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.comThis left year-on-year inflation at the end of October 2022 at 3%, the same level that it was at the end of September 2022. The stability of the index compared with the previous month is due to opposing trends that counterbalanced each other overall....

In another sign of weakness for the job market, the total number of employed persons in the United States fell, month over month, in October. That’s the third time in the last seven months this total has fallen, dropping to approximately 158 million. According to new employment data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, the current population survey shows 328,000 fewer people were employed in October than in September, seasonally adjusted. . This...