Tag Archives: Featured

Watch executives are betting on growth in China (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The majority of Swiss watch executives surveyed by consulting firm Deloitte are positive about new rules requiring at least 60% of a watch’s manufactured costs to be incurred in Switzerland. According to the Deloitte Swiss Watch Industry Study 2017external link, released on Wednesday, 44% of 60 watch executives surveyed consider the new...

The FOMC is widely expected to vote in favor of reducing the system’s balance sheet this week. The possibility has been called historic and momentous, though it may be for reasons that aren’t very kind to these central bankers. Having started to swell almost ten years ago, it’s a big deal only in that after so much time here they still are having these kinds of discussions. My own view on the topic is the same as...

Given that today started with a review of the “dollar” globally as represented by TIC figures and how that is playing into China’s circumstances, it would only be fitting to end it with a more complete examination of those. We know that the eurodollar system is constraining Chinese monetary conditions, but all through this year the PBOC has approached that constraint very differently than last year.The updated balance...

The Swiss consumption indicator by UBS shows improvements. The indicator is still distant from the highs in 2012. At the time stronger growth in Emerging Markets and the weaker franc helped the Swiss economy. The UBS consumption indicator increased to 1.53 points in August thanks to robust new car registrations and encouraging numbers of hotel stays by Swiss residents, indicating consumption growth slightly above the...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.01% to 1.1446 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 26(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar is firmer against most major currencies today. The implications the Jamaica coalition in Germany is understood to be less likely to support a new vision for Europe in the aftermath of Brexit and the Great Financial Crisis....

Les Suisses ont accepté par 78,7% de compléter la Constitution par un article sur la sécurité alimentaire. Les Romands ont été les plus enthousiastes. Les Suisses sont très attachés à la sécurité alimentaire. Dimanche, 78,7% d’entre-eux ont dit «oui». Aucun canton n’a refusé. Environ 1’943’000 citoyens ont déposé un «oui» dans l’urne, contre un peu moins de 525’000 «non». Les cantons les moins convaincus ont été Schwyz...

Gold finished sharply higher on Monday, recouping roughly half of last week’s loss, as declines in the U.S. stock market and growing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea lifted prices for the yellow metal to the highest settlement in more than a week. December gold rose $14, or 1.1%, to settle at $1,311.50 an ounce. Prices, which lost about 2.1% last week, saw their highest finish since Sept. 15, according to...

The People’s Bank of China reported this week that its holdings of foreign assets fell slightly again in August 2017. Down about RMB 21 billion, almost identical to the RMB 22 billion decline in July, the pace of forex withdrawals is clearly much preferable to what China’s central bank experienced (intentionally or not) late last year at ten and even twenty times the rate of July and August. The US Treasury Department...

Q2/2017 Change vs. Q2/2016 Changein % Current Account +18.7 bn. +19.4 bn. -3.7% of which Goods Trade net +19.6 bn. +19.2 bn. +2.0% of which Services Trade net +4.1 bn. +4.7 bn. -14.6% of which Investment Income net +7.4 bn. +9.6 bn. -29.7% Financial Account +12.5 bn. +6.0 bn. +52% of which Direct Investments net -63.0 bn. +6.4 bn. -89.8% of which Portfolio Investments net +26.5 bn. -0.5 bn. +98.1% of...

The incoming economic data hasn’t changed its tone all that much in the last several years. The US economy is growing but more slowly than it once did and we hope it does again. It is frustrating for economic bulls and bears, never fully satisfying either. Probably more important is the frustration of the average American, a dissatisfaction with the status quo that permeates the national debate. The housing bubble...