SNB & CHF

US Dollar Index tumbles to fresh weekly lows at 98.73, down 4% from the top.  US data: Consumer Sentiment Index suffers second-largest monthly decline in March. The USD/CHF pair is falling for the fourth consecutive day amid an ongoing sell-off of the US dollar. The DXY approached earlier on Friday the 100.00 area and recently bottomed at 98.73, the lowest level since March 17. The US dollar remains under pressure, affected by lower US yields. After a short-lived...

Doing it properly: instructions for wearing a FFP2 face mask. (Keystone / Christian Beutler) After Germany, France has lifted restrictions on the delivery of hygienic face masks to Switzerland. Some two million masks are needed each day, according to the Federal Office for Public Health. The French embassy to Switzerland made the announcementexternal link on Saturday, paving the way for two shipments of FFP2 hygienic masks to go ahead from France to Switzerland....

There are only two ways to survive a decline in income and net worth: slash expenses or default on debt. In post-World War II America, the cultural zeitgeist viewed frugality as a choice: permanent economic growth and federal anti-poverty programs steadily reduced the number of people in deep economic hardship (i.e. forced frugality) and raised the living standards of those in hardship to the point that the majority of households could choose to be frugal or live...

When one imagines working on Wall Street, he envisions stock traders scrambling to place buy or sell orders, perhaps even some puts or options. Today’s powerful artificial intelligence tools allow traders to game stock market trading. In some ways, this computer-driven high-frequency trading resembles actual gaming in that it may seem as if one is simulating various trading scenarios. Unexpectedly, politicians view this sort of behavior as providing little value to...

Markets continue to digest the implications of the Fed’s bazooka moment last week The data highlight this week will be March jobs data Friday; key manufacturing sector data will come out earlier in the week On Friday, BOC delivered an emergency 50 bp rate cut to 0.25% and started QE Final eurozone and UK PMI readings for March will be reported; late Friday, Fitch cut UK’s rating by a notch to AA- with negative outlook Japan has a fairly busy data week; RBA minutes...

© blurf | Dreamstime.com This morning, Switzerland’s federal government announced the number of Covid-19 tests conducted so far in Switzerland. South Korea, a nation often cited among those with high test rates, now trails Switzerland on the number per capita tests it has conducted. By 26 March 2020, South Korea had conducted 364,942 tests, a rate of 7,090 test per million, while Switzerland had conducted 91,400 Covid-19 tests, a rate of 10,665 tests per million....

How Switzerland peps up SMEs: Banks are encouraged to extend credit (at 0%). The treasury guarantees the loans. The SNB refinances banks and accepts the guaranteed loans as collateral. Fast and efficient. Eventually, some of these loans will turn into grants of course. But that’s ok; the first-best response to a shock with asymmetric effects does involve transfers if markets are incomplete. You Might Also Like...

Companies are feeling the effects of dislocated supply chains and invoices not being paid. (Keystone / Alessandro Crinari) Swiss companies are reporting slumping sales, cashflow problems and bottlenecks in the supply of crucial materials as the coronavirus crisis hits the economy. However, a survey also found that three out of four firms are satisfied with a CHF42 billion ($43 billion) state bailout package. The 84 respondents to the Swiss Business Federation...

© Peter Ekvall | Dreamstime.com Naturally, many of us would like to know the fatality rate of Covid-19. But at this stage it is guesswork. Here are some of the problems with two of the most popular fatality rates. The most popular calculation involves dividing the number deaths by the number of cases. Epidemiologists call this a naive case fatality rate (CFR). There are two ways to calculate this rate. The all-in rate The first is to take the number of deaths so far...

I would write something snarky about bank reserves, but why bother at this point? It’s already been said. If Jay Powell doesn’t mention collateral, no one else does even though it’s the whole ballgame right now. Note: FRBNY’s updated figures shown below are for last week. Primary Dealer Repo Fails (UST), 2017-2020 - Click to enlarge You Might Also Like Is GFC2 Over? Is it over? That’s the question...