Tag Archives: Featured

Summary: The major currencies but the Canadian dollar peaked Jan 25-26. The Australian dollar has fallen the most since peaking. Many are still viewing the dollar’s recovery as technical in nature and not a turn in the trend. This Great Graphic was created on Bloomberg. It shows five major currencies against the US dollar this year. To avoid giving a misleading impression, the currencies are index to start...

Where did the wood come from? Swiss consumers have the right to know. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Five out of six Swiss companies selling wood or wooden products fail to declare the type and origin of the wood correctly – despite a legal requirement that has been in place since 2012. As the Federal Consumer Affairs Bureauexternal link announced on Tuesday, it conducted 120 inspections last year and found...

The so-called Schweizerhalle, a Novartis factory in Muttenz (© KEYSTONE / GEORGIOS KEFALAS) - Click to enlarge Greece’s parliament has linked ten prominent politicians to a bribery scandal involving Swiss drug-maker Novartis. The Greek parliament announced on Tuesday the results of a judicial investigation into alleged bribes paid to public officials by Basel-based Novartisexternal link over nearly a decade...

Peak Gold: 2017 Supply Flat As China Output Falls By 9% – China gold production falls by 9% to 420.5t in 2017– Chinese gold demand rose 4% to 953.3t in same period– China is largest producer and accounts for 15% of global gold production– China does not export gold. Increasing foreign gold acquisitions to meet demand– Global gold production flat – 3,269t in ’17 from 3,263t in ’16, smallest increase since ’08– Peak...

US imports rocketed higher once again in December, according to just-released estimates from the Census Bureau. Since August 2017, the US economy has been adding foreign goods at an impressive pace. Year-over-year (SA), imports are up just 10.4% (only 9% unadjusted) but 9.3% was in just those last four months. For most of 2017, imports were flat and even lower. The question is, obviously, what has changed? Did the boom...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.18% to 1.1602 CHF. EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 07(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates After a volatile session in North America, the major equity indices closed higher. In fact, the 1.75% rise in the S&P 500 was the best since November 2016. Asian equities stabilized, and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index was able to eke out...

- Click to enlarge The Bank of England meets tomorrow. Although no one expects a move, it has little to do with the recent market volatility. The FTSE 100 is poised to snap a six-day 7%+ slide. The FTSE 250 fell for seven consecutive sessions through yesterday, shedding 5.75% in the process. The UK’s 2-year yield slipped about seven basis points from last week’s close to58 bp before recovering to 63 bp today,...

Summary: The U.S. 2017 trade deficit was the largest since 2008. U.S. goods exports hit a record. There has been substantial improvement in the U.S. oil trade balance. The US trade deficit swelled in December, and the $53.1 bln shortfall was a bit larger than expected. It was the largest deficit since October 2008. For the 2017, the US recorded a trade deficit of goods and services of $566 bln, the largest...

ETH Zurich is consistently ranked one of the top universities in Europe. (Keystone) - Click to enlarge Switzerland’s federal technology institutes account for 100,000 jobs and CHF13 billion in added value to the economy, a new report calculates. This represents a fivefold return on investment, it claims. The institutes – notably the universities of EPFL in Lausanne and ETH in Zurich – have long been acknowledged...

Crypto Currency Backlash Sees Flight From Cryptos and Bitcoin – Bitcoin falls from $20,000 to below $6,000 and bounces back to $8000– Top 50 crypto currencies lost over 50% of value in 24 hours– Over $60 billion wiped off entire crypto currency market in 24 hours– Markets concerned about increased regulation, manipulation & country-wide bans– ‘Growing global unease about risks virtual currencies pose to investors...