SNB & CHF

Chinese Industrial Production accelerated further in December 2019, rising 6.9% year-over-year according to today’s estimates from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). That was a full percentage point above consensus. IP had bottomed out right in August at a record low 4.4%, and then, just as this wave of renewed optimism swept the world, it has rebounded alongside it. Rather than suggest the global economy is picking up, or ended last year in a “good...

Authored by Guillaume Durocher via The Unz Review, After the article on the Great Replacement in Belgium, I present you the following translation of an article by Polémia on the situation in Switzerland. The Swiss situation is unique, if only because of the country’s objective excellence and exceptional quality of life, and the extraordinary practice of direct democracy. Thus we have the rather rare situation of citizens actually being allowed to vote on whether and...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.05% to 1.0737 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, January 20(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The new week is off to a quiet start as the US celebrates Martin Luther King’s birthday, and investors look for a fresh focus. Hong Kong and Indian markets were suffered modest declines while most of the other large Asia Pacific markets edged higher. European stocks are trading a...

Analysts at MUFG Bank, point out that the Swiss franc has strengthened alongside the price of gold, perhaps reflecting debasement fears. They argue market participants are also questioning Swiss National Bank’s appetite for maintaining negative rates and intervening to dampen CHF strength. Key Quotes: “Market participants are also questioning whether the SNB will still has the same appetite to continue intervening in the FX market to dampen CHF strength. It follows...

Die Schweizer Fahne weht vor dem Sitz der Schweizerischen Nationalbank (SNB) in Bern (26.4.2019). Bild: Bloomberg Fünf Jahre nach der turbulenten Abkehr der Schweiz von der Euro-Anbindung regt sich zunehmend Widerstand gegen die von den Währungshütern stattdessen ausgerufene ultra-lockere Geldpolitik. Seit die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) am 15. Januar 2015 die zuvor mehrere Jahre durchgesetzte Euro-Kursuntergrenze von 1,20 Franken abrupt kippte, setzt die...

The US dominated the news stream at the start of 2020. The spasm in the US-Iran confrontation has quickly subsided. The much-heralded US-China Phase 1 trade deal has been signed. The US has completed the ratification process of the US Mexico Canada Free-Trade Agreement. The early signs from the economic entrails suggest the world’s largest economy continue to enjoy a record-long, even if not robust, expansion. The focus shifts elsewhere in the week ahead,...

Air Force One carrying US President Donald Trump, landing at Zurich airport in 2018, the last time he came to WEF (Keystone / Walter Bieri) American secret service agents have been granted access to Zurich Airport’s control tower as they prepare for US President Donald Trump’s visit to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, the NZZ am Sonntag reports. WEFexternal link, which starts in the Swiss mountain resort on Monday, attracts wealthy, high-profile business and...

“Luck egalitarianism” is a philosophical fad, and in the past I have had some characteristically unkind things to say about it. I’d like today to discuss a new argument that concerns luck and government. The economist Robert H. Frank says in Under the Influence, Because successful people often fail to appreciate the importance of seemingly minor random events in life, they tend to develop an exaggerated sense of entitlement to the enormous material rewards they...

In 1971, Isaac Asimov wrote an extraordinary novel, The Gods Themselves, about a machine that generates unlimited energy for free, defying the fundamental economic principle known as scarcity. It is later learned that the Electron Pump is originating from a hole in space that connects parallel universes. Doomsday is nigh as it is discovered that galaxies will soon be destroyed and that the sun will metastasize into a supernova. The crux of the story is comparable to...

Market sentiment on EM remains positive after the Phase One trade deal was signed. Data out of China is also supportive for EM. Key forward-looking data this week are Taiwan export orders and Korea trade data for the first 20 days of January. The global liquidity story also remains beneficial for risk, with the ECB, Norges Bank, BOC, and BOJ all set to maintain steady rates this week. AMERICAS Mexico reports mid-January CPI Thursday, which is expected to rise 3.16%...