SNB & CHF

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....

In the wake of the Brexit vote, Scottish nationalists have renewed their calls for a new referendum on Scottish independence. But many remain unconvinced, and many claim Scotland is “too small” to be an independent country. Others claim that Scotland is too poor, since Scotland’s GDP per capita is only 90 percent that of England. But by no measure is Scotland a “poor” country. It may be poorer than England, but Scotland’s GDP per capita puts it about halfway down the...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.08% to 1.064 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 12(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Investors appear to be increasingly looking past the latest coronavirus from China as new afflictions slow. Despite the soggy close of US equities yesterday, Asia Pacific bourses are nearly all higher, led by more than 1% gains in Singapore and Thailand. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is...

USD/CHF created a rising wedge pattern suggesting potential exhaustion in the medium term. The level to beat for bears is the 0.9770 support.   USD/CHF daily chart USD/CHF is pulling back down slightly from the 2020 highs while reintegrating Friday’s range. The spot is trading below the 100/200-day simple moving averages suggesting an overall bearish bias. USD/CHF daily chart(see more posts on USD/CHF, ) - Click to enlarge USD/CHF four-hour chart USD/CHF is...