SNB & CHF

Thiam gave no indication of which job he will next take. (Keystone / Ennio Leanza) Outgoing Credit Suisse chief executive Tidjane Thiam said he was proud of what he has achieved at the bank as it delivered strong 2019 results and a promising start to this year. Thiam handed in his resignation last week after losing the confidence of the board following a spying scandal that had seriously damaged the bank’s reputation. Thursday was Thiam’s last day in office. The bank...

I actually wanted to focus on this yesterday but confirmation wasn’t forthcoming until today. So, it ended up being a broader note on the dollar which only included some mention of Brazil in passing. Still a worthwhile couple of minutes. There were rumors that Banco (central) do Brasil was intervening or was going to intervene in its local currency markets, which may be an important signal. More of swaps that aren’t really currency swaps (which you can read about...

Lot No 210, a 1937 coin set comprising gold sovereigns and £5 coins in a leather case, which sold for £8,000. Photograph: Wotton Auction Rooms ◆ Gold coins including gold sovereigns found in drawers of deceased retiree’s cottage sell at auction for £80,000 ◆ British gold coins including gold sovereigns from the Royal Mint found in drawers and cupboards of cottage fetch £80,000; one British gold sovereign found in a sugar bowl ◆ Auctioneer John Rolfe expected little...

Swiss parliamentarian Georg Stucky (left), who was a board member of Crypto AG, talks to cabinet minister Kaspar Villiger in parliament in Bern in March 1997 (KEYSTONE/Alessandro della Valle) (Keystone / Alessandrop Della Valle) Was former Swiss cabinet minister Kaspar Villiger aware that the Swiss firm Crypto AG was controlled by the CIA? Swiss media say newly released CIA documents support this claim, but the ex-defence minister vehemently denies it. The CIA...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.13% to 1.0619 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 13(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: There is one overriding driver today, and that is the incorporation of CAT scan diagnoses of the virus in Hubei, ground-zero. This follows the arrival of WHO officials into China a couple days ago. Not only have the cases jumped, but so did the number of deaths. It plays on fears...

Markets are reacting badly to upward revisions to coronavirus cases in China The euro fell to the weakest level since mid-2017 against the dollar UK housing data adds to relatively upbeat figures since the December elections Malaysia’s government is joining in the counter-cyclical fiscal effort The dollar is mixed on the day. The yen is 0.3% stronger, briefly trading above the ¥110.0 level on negative headlines about China’s coronavirus infections. The euro and...

USD/CHF stalls the previous day’s declines after breaking the weekly support line (now resistance). Late-December lows limit immediate upside, 50% Fibonacci can check the declines. Bearish MACD favors further weakness in the quote. USD/CHF clings to 0.9755 during the pre-European session on Wednesday. The pair snapped six-day winning streak on the break of an ascending trendline since February 03. However, 61.8% Fibonacci retracement of December 24-January 16 fall...

(Keystone / Urs Flueeler) The Swiss government has opened an investigation into a decades-old spying affair involving Swiss firm Crypto, following reports by Swiss public broadcaster SRF, German broadcaster ZDF and The Washington Post. The government confirmed on Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into the reports that Crypto, a Zug-based communications encryption firm, was secretly used by the CIA and West German intelligence services for decades. The...

In this staged photo, a debt adviser speaks to a client (Keystone) Net expenditure on social assistance in Switzerland increased by 1.3% in 2018 compared with the previous year. The government, cantons and municipalities paid out a total of CHF8.4 billion ($8.6 billion). Each recipient of social assistanceexternal link received an average of CHF10,379, the Federal Statistical Office said in a statement on Tuesday. This is an increase of 2.4% on 2017. Expenditure per...

Historic Misjudgments in Hindsight Viewing the past through the lens of history is unfair to the participants. Missteps are too obvious. Failures are too abundant. Vanities are too absurd. The benefit of hindsight often renders the participants mere imbeciles on parade. The moment Custer realized things were not going exactly as planned. PT Was George Armstrong Custer really just an arrogant Lieutenant Colonel who led his men to massacre at Little Bighorn? Maybe....