Tag Archives: Featured

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.30% to 1.0709 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, May 29(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview:  The announcement that President Trump will hold a press conference on China later today rattled investors yesterday after they had earlier shrugged off the escalation of tension between the US and China to take the S&P 500 up to its highest level in nearly three months.  The S&P...

This year’s car show was cancelled four days prior to its opening due to the coronavirus outbreak, costing an estimated loss of CHF11 million for the organisers of Switzerland’s largest event. (Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi) The 2021 edition of the Geneva International Motor Show remains touch and go after the organisers rejected the terms surrounding a state rescue loan. This year’s car show was cancelled four days prior to its opening due to the coronavirus...

[caption id="attachment_459835" align="alignleft" width="400"] © Vladimir Fedorov | Dreamstime.com[/caption] Working from home is a mixed bag of pros and cons for most Swiss who were surveyed by gfs.bern in March and April 2020. But it worked for most. In 2019, before the outbreak of the corona pandemic, around 1.1 million employees in Switzerland occasionally worked from home. During the pandemic the number of hours worked at home...

The numbers just don’t add up. Even if you treat this stuff on the most charitable of terms, dollar for dollar, way too much of the hole almost certainly remains unfilled. That’s the thing about “stimulus” talk; for one thing, people seem to be viewing it as some kind of addition without thinking it all the way through first. You have to begin by sizing up the gross economic deficit it is being haphazardly poured into – with an additional emphasis on...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.30% to 1.0686 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, May 28(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The US Secretary of State’s announcement that the autonomy of Hong Kong could no longer be affirmed did not derail the rally in US equities. However, the threat of an executive order against social media companies may be discouraging follow-through buying, leaving US equities little...

Last week, German chancellor Merkel delivered a surprise about-face when she and French president Macron announced a proposal for a EUR 500bn recovery fund in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The unprecedented plan involves the distribution of grants, rather than loans, to member states in economic need. The deal is far from done, however, as it is currently opposed by the EU ‘frugal four’, who insist on loans rather than grants, which would over-indebt...

Watches were among the poorest performing Swiss exports in April. (© Keystone / Gaetan Bally) Swiss watch exports slumped by over 80% last month, recording sales of just CHF329 million ($339 million) – compared with CHF1.76 billion in April 2019. Both exports and imports in all industries endured a predictably dire performance as Covid-19 resulted in national lockdowns. Figures from the Federal Customs Administrationexternal link on Tuesday revealed the gravity of...

While demand for public transport collapsed during Switzerland’s partial lockdown, bicycle usage soared across the country. But greater acceptance of cycling nationwide will depend on further political decisions and transport planning. Ernst Leuthold, the owner of a bike shop in Bern, can’t believe his eyes. “It’s amazing to see all these people who haven’t been on a bike for years and then suddenly feel the need to do so,” he declared. Daniel Schärer, director of...

Recent moves by China call into direct question the “one country, two systems” approach. Hong Kong assets have held up surprisingly well but we see turbulence ahead as US-China relations are set to deteriorate further. POLITICAL OUTLOOK Legislation was introduced last week that allows Beijing to directly impose a national security law on Hong Kong. Local legislative approval would be circumvented but Chief Executive Lam said Hong Kong authorities would fully...