Tag Archives: Featured

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.04% to 1.0969 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, July 01(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Soft Asian manufacturing PMIs weighed on local shares after the S&P 500 set new record highs yesterday. European shares are recouping yesterday’s month-end losses, while US futures indices are bid. The US 10-year yield is around 1.47%, and European yields are 1-2 bp higher. The...

01.07.2021 – The consumer price index (CPI) increased by 0.1% in June 2021 compared with the previous month, reaching 101.1 points (December 2020 = 100). Inflation was +0.6% compared with the same month of the previous year. These are the results of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).The 0.1% increase compared with the previous month is due to several factors including rising prices for fruiting vegetables. International package holidays also recorded a price...

01.07.2021 – Turnover adjusted for sales days and holidays rose in the retail sector by 2.3% in nominal terms in May 2021 compared with the previous year. Seasonally adjusted, nominal turnover fell by 1.9% compared with the previous month. These are provisional findings from the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Real turnover adjusted for sales days and holidays rose in the retail sector by 2.8% in May 2021 compared with the previous year. Real growth takes...

Switzerland looks set to choose the US option over European competitors following months of intense lobbying. Keystone / Giuseppe Lami The Swiss government wants to upgrade the country’s air defence system by buying 36 F-35A fighter aircraft from United States manufacturer Lockheed Martin and five Patriot surface-to-air missile units from another US firm Raytheon. The Federal Council (governing body) will ask parliament to approve the dual purchase on the basis that...

The Fed’s “choice” is as illusory as the “wealth” the Fed has created with its perfection of moral hazard. The belief that the Federal Reserve possesses god-like powers and wisdom would be comical if it wasn’t so deeply tragic, for the Fed doesn’t even have a plan, much less wisdom. All the Fed has is an incoherent jumble of expedient, panic-driven “saves” it cobbled together in the 2008-2009 Global Financial Meltdown that it had made inevitable. The irony is the...

It is widely held that the central bank is a key factor in the determination of interest rates. By popular thinking, the Fed influences the short-term interest rates by influencing monetary liquidity in the markets. Through the injection of liquidity, the Fed pushes short-term interest rates lower. Conversely, by withdrawing liquidity, the Fed exerts an upward pressure on the short-term interest rates. Popular thinking also suggests that long-term rates are the...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.03% to 1.0959 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, June 30(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The dollar is finishing the quarter on firm footing, gaining against most of the major currencies today. The euro is straddling the $1.1900 area, having begun the month above $1.22. Sterling has tested the $1.38 area. It had traded at a three-year high near $1.4250 at the start of the...

The Lifeline of Markets- Liquidity Defined We recently read an analogy in which the author compares the current state of asset prices to an airplane flying at 50,000 feet. Unfortunately, we cannot find the article and provide a link. The gist is market valuations are flying at an abnormally high altitude. While our market plane cannot sustain such heights in the long run, there is little reason to suspect it will fall from the sky either. Many investors are writing...

The operators of Germany’s main stock exchange appear committed to merging cryptocurrencies into mainstream finance. Keystone / Boris Roessler The operators of Germany’s main stock exchange have paid more than CHF100 million ($108 million) for a majority stake in Swiss cryptocurrency service provider Crypto Finance. The move reflects a growing trend of traditional financial institutions gearing themselves up for an anticipated growth in the trade of digital financial...

Back at the end of May, Germany’s statistical accounting agency (deStatis) added another one to the inflationary inferno raging across the mainstream media. According to its flash calculations, German consumer prices last month had increased by the fastest rate in 13 years. Even using the European “harmonized” methodology (Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices, or HICP), inflation had reached 2.4% year-over-year which was the highest since 2012. Europe HICP and...