SNB & CHF

Each party will continue to extract whatever benefits they can from the other, but the leaving is already well underway. Beneath the euphoric hoopla of a trade deal with China is the cold reality that the divorce has already happened and any trade deal just signs the decree. The divorce of China and the U.S. was mutual; each had used up whatever benefits the tense marriage had offered, and each is looking forward to no longer being dependent on the other. Any trade...

Often, government-created holidays begin with a good premise — i.e., Independence Day, Armistice Day — and get worse from there. On Independence Day, instead of celebrating armed rebellion and secession, we now sing the praises of the government. Similarly, Armistice Day — a day designed to commemorate the end of a war — became Veterans Day, a day designed to honor government employees. Thanksgiving Day, on the other hand, appears to have moved in the opposite...

Capital losses and transactions influence household financial wealth The financial assets of households were influenced by two factors in 2018: First, falling share prices led to high capital losses and, second, households grew their financial wealth through transactions. They increased their insurance and pension scheme entitlements, expanded their bank deposits and invested in securities. Overall, household financial assets fell slightly by CHF 14 billion to CHF...

The shortage of skilled workers on the Swiss job market has become even more acute this year, according to a survey. Finding suitable engineers, technical workers and fiduciaries is particularly difficult. The skilled worker shortage index(PDF), compiled annually by Adecco Switzerland in collaboration with the University of Zurich, measures the occupations in which the number of vacancies is particularly large compared with the number of job-seekers. There is an...

© Joerg Stoeber | Dreamstime.com Unemployment rose in the third quarter of 2019, however, there have never been more jobs in Switzerland. The total number of jobs in Switzerland rose to 5.137 million at 30 September 2019, a level never seen before. The figure was 1.3% higher than at 30 September 2018 and 0.3% higher than 30 June 2019. And the rise wasn’t due to shift towards part time jobs. On a full time equivalent basis (FTE) there were 1.1% more jobs at 30...

October 2017 continues to show up as the most crucial month across a wide range of global economic data. In the mainstream telling, it should have been a very good thing, a hugely positive inflection. That was the time of true inflation hysteria around the globe, though it was always presented as a rationally-determined base case rather than the unsupported madness it really was. That was the month the real recovery was supposed to have started. Instead, we can...

Blockchain is tipped to bring efficiencies to the financial system – and beyond. (© Keystone / Ennio Leanza) Proposed updates to the banking, corporate and financial infrastructure laws to accommodate Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) have been broadly welcomed by Switzerland’s growing blockchain industry. Parliament is now set to debate the wide-ranging set of proposals presented by the governmentexternal link on Wednesday. The government’s intentions were first...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.21% to 1.1011 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, November 29(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Global equities are trading heavily. Both the MSCI Asia Pacific and the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 snapped four-day advancing streaks yesterday and have seen some follow-through selling today. In the Asia Pacific region, all the markets fell but Jakarta. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped a...

USD/CHF declines after registering a bearish candlestick formation the previous day. Buyers look for sustained trading beyond 1.0000 psychological magnet. 200-day SMA can please sellers during further downside. USD/CHF drops to 0.9985 during the early trading session on Friday. That said, the pair formed a bearish “Spinning Top” candlestick formation while taking a U-turn from 1.0000 round-figure. Considering the pair’s repeated failures to provide a sustained run-up...

. After an estimated 1.2% in 2019, we expect GDP growth of 1.0% in the euro area in 2020. Country wise, we expect more manufacturing-intense countries to underperform more domestically driven ones. Thus, we project weak growth of 0.7% in Germany and 0.4% in Italy in 2020, while we expect France and Spain to remain relatively resilient, growing by 1.2% and 1.7%, respectively. Domestic demand, particularly household consumption, is expected to remain the main growth...