SNB & CHF

Credit Suisse is embroiled in its second collapsed deal in a matter of weeks. Keystone / Urs Flueeler Credit Suisse and Nomura have warned of large losses after a fire sale of about $20bn of Chinese and US stocks, as their client Archegos Capital Management was forced into a huge unwinding of assets. Nomura could face a total wipeout of its profits for the second half of the financial year, while Credit Suisse has warned the sell-off could have a “highly significant...

Update March 29 2021: SNB selling euros and dollars Sight Deposits have fallen: The change is -0.2 bn. compared to last week, this means the SNB is selling euros and dollars. Speculative Positioning: Speculators are long CHF against USD. Since March 13, they have shifted to a long EUR position against USD. The following shows the recent developments. Sight Deposits, i.e. SNB interventions FX rates Speculative positions CHF: Since April, speculators...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.07% to 1.1064 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 29(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The large block trade (~$20 bln) before the weekend, apparently from a family office, continued to have ripple effects today, but the MSCI Asia Pacific Index barely noticed. It extended its pre-weekend rally of 1.3%, and only South Korea and Australia fell among the major markets....

The potential loss is the latest blow to Credit Suisse, which was hit by the recent Greensill scandal. © Keystone / Gaetan Bally The Swiss bank Credit Suisse says it may face a “highly significant” loss in the first quarter due to an unnamed American hedge fund client defaulting on margin calls. In a statementExternal link issued on Monday, the bank said: “While at this time it is premature to quantify the exact size of the loss resulting from this exit, it could be...

Over the years I’ve written almost ad nauseum about the crazy I see (and saw) around me as a fund manager, family office principal and individual investor. The list includes: 1) an entire book on the grotesque central bank distortions of free market price discovery, 2) the open (and now accepted) dishonesty on everything from front-running Musk tweets and bogus inflation reporting to COMEX price fixing, 3) the insanity of 100-Year Austrian bonds or just...

Key developments in 2020 The current account surplus in 2020 was CHF 27 billion, down CHF 22 billion on the previous year. This decline was particularly due to the lower receipts surpluses in trade in goods and services. In the case of goods, the decline in receipts – with expenses remaining unchanged – caused the balance to decrease by CHF 11 billion to CHF 64 billion. While both receipts and expenses were substantially lower in the cyclically sensitive goods trade...

The Covid-19 pandemic demands the creative management of public funds but some authorities are finding this difficult. (Image: Cildo Meireles, ‘Zero Dollar’, 1978-84) Cildo Meireles Cildo Meireles The Covid-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the Swiss arts scene. Support measures have been introduced to “preserve cultural diversity” and some cantons have even launched monthly income support schemes for artists. But will these measures be enough? These have been...

Few political movements can boast of success like the firearms movement in the United States. Often overlooked is how before the 1980s there was no concept of licensed, let alone unlicensed, concealed carry in the overwhelming majority of the country. The sole exception was Vermont, which through an idiosyncratic state supreme court decision in 1903 has had unlicensed carry for over a century. “Vermont Carry,” the concept of unlicensed concealed carry, would be the...

If health is wealth, and it most certainly is the highest form of wealth, then we would be well-served to take charge of our health-wealth in terms of what behaviors we can sustainably modify. Longtime correspondent J.F. (MD) recently shared a fascinating graphic ranking the leading causes of death in the U.S. (2016 data, pre-pandemic) compared to searches on Google and what the media reports. (see chart below) Note that this data isn’t a survey asking people to...

Last month, British black studies professor Kehinde Andrews argued that the British Empire was “far worse than the Nazis.” It was a controversial comparison to be sure, but it raises the question: Compared to other expansionist regimes, how bad was the British Empire? A survey of the evidence suggests that the British Empire was relatively less harmful than other imperial efforts, and this is reflected in outcomes—in terms of health and economic growth, among other...