by Investec Switzerland. Investors appear to be staying on the sidelines this week ahead of the weekend’s Italian referendum. Swiss stocks are set to finish the week lower, underperforming global equities as food giant Nestle and pharmaceutical heavyweights Roche and Novartis drag the index down. © Lupoalb68 | Dreamstime.com It’s been a volatile trading week across financial markets. Oil prices jumped almost 9% on Wednesday after OPEC members finally agreed a deal to cut production while upbeat US economic data triggered further bond market selling, ending a miserable November for Treasuries. Global equity market’s failed to make any real progress, consolidating after last month’s highs. Hopes of a reflationary Trump administration rekindled the dollar’s advance toward a near 14-year peak this week. On the other side of the Atlantic, euro volatility jumped to the highest since before the Brexit vote as investors brace for Italy’s referendum and Austria’s presidential election on Dec. 4. In Switzerland, the economy failed to grow (0.0%) for the first time in more than a year in the third quarter, held back by weak domestic demand and the first fall in government spending since early 2014. The statistics office said the weak performance wasn’t a sign of the recovery being thrown off course.
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Investec considers the following as important: Business & Economy, Editor's Choice, SMI, Swiss stocks
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Investors appear to be staying on the sidelines this week ahead of the weekend’s Italian referendum. Swiss stocks are set to finish the week lower, underperforming global equities as food giant Nestle and pharmaceutical heavyweights Roche and Novartis drag the index down.
© Lupoalb68 | Dreamstime.com
It’s been a volatile trading week across financial markets. Oil prices jumped almost 9% on Wednesday after OPEC members finally agreed a deal to cut production while upbeat US economic data triggered further bond market selling, ending a miserable November for Treasuries. Global equity market’s failed to make any real progress, consolidating after last month’s highs.
Hopes of a reflationary Trump administration rekindled the dollar’s advance toward a near 14-year peak this week. On the other side of the Atlantic, euro volatility jumped to the highest since before the Brexit vote as investors brace for Italy’s referendum and Austria’s presidential election on Dec. 4.
In Switzerland, the economy failed to grow (0.0%) for the first time in more than a year in the third quarter, held back by weak domestic demand and the first fall in government spending since early 2014. The statistics office said the weak performance wasn’t a sign of the recovery being thrown off course. Some analysts said that the surprisingly slow growth the quarter is an outlier and that while the stronger franc remains a concern, the country’s economic recovery remains intact.
In company news, Credit Suisse Group hit the headlines this week, saying the bank is cutting 175 jobs in London to lower costs. The measures will bring the bank closer to a previously announced goal of eliminating 6,000 jobs this year and scale back the global markets business.
