Tag Archives: Featured

Switzerland’s real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an above-average 0.6% in the 4th quarter of 2017.1 Growth was broad-based across the various business sectors, with manufacturing, construction and most service sectors, particularly financial services, providing momentum. On the expenditure side, growth was underpinned by consumption and investment in construction but was hindered by investment in equipment and...

The Used Goods Question Retail sales in several countries like Germany, Japan and Switzerland continue to fall or they remain steady for years. In the United States they have strongly risen recently. We should remind readers, that used goods sold via Ebay or similar, are not contained in this statistics. Still they create economic value for the purchases. By mentality, Swiss, Germans or Japanese pay more attention so...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.17% to 1.1534 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 01(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar rebounded last September and October before the downtrend resumed in November, and lasted through January. The dollar gained broadly last month, except against the yen, which rose almost 2.4% in February. This pattern is...

Economic Reports Economic Growth & Investment We pay particular attention to broad based indicators of growth. The Chicago Fed National Activity Index and the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicators are examples. We watch them because we are mostly interested in identifying inflection points in the broad economy and aren’t as interested in the details.  Why? Because, while bear markets do happen outside of...

Business has declined by 14% over the past few years (Keystone) - Click to enlarge The cargo division on the Swiss Federal Railways has announced plans to cut 760 jobs in the coming years. The company currently employs around 2,300 staff in Switzerland. Company boss Nicolas Perrin revealed the job cut measures on Saturday in the weekly Schweiz am Wochenende. According to him, the administrative section of...

– Will digital gold provide the benefits of physical gold?– Digital gold and crypto gold products claim to combine efficiencies of blockchain with value of gold– They are yet to provide the same benefits or safety as owning physical gold– National mints jumping in on the ‘sexy blockchain’ act – BOE  declares bitcoin ‘not a currency;’ Royal Mint launches blockchain gold product– Digital gold, blockchain gold and crypto...

In February 2018, the KOF Economic Barometer rose by 0.4 points to a new reading of 108.0. After the previous month’s decline, it thus stabilised its position on a level clearly above its long-term average. This indicates that in the near future the Swiss economy should continue to grow at rates above average. In February 2018, the KOF Economic Barometer climbed from 107.6 in January (revised up from 106.9) by 0.4...

See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Object of Speculation The prices of the metals fell last week, $22 and $0.24 respectively. It’s an odd thing, isn’t it? Each group of traders knows how gold “should” react to a particular type of news. But they all want the same thing — they want gold to go up. And when it doesn’t, many hesitate to buy. Or even sell. This...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.19% to 1.1504 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 28(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Many market participants think they heard Fed Chair Powell give a fairly strong signal that he favored a more aggressive course. The implied yield on the December Eurodollar futures rose five basis points to 1.535%. The December Fed...

This Great Graphic from Bloomberg shows the net large speculative positioning in the 10-year note futures over the past five years. They began last year with a huge next short position of more than 400k contracts. By May-June, the speculators had reversed themselves and were net long over 350k contracts. In the middle of December 2017, the net position was short again and peaked in early February near 327.5k contracts....