Tag Archives: Featured

USD/CHF traded with a positive bias for the sixth consecutive session on Monday. Bulls are likely to wait for a sustained move beyond the very important 200-DMA. The USD/CHF pair built on last week’s goodish positive move of around 300 pips and continued gaining traction for the sixth straight session on Monday. The pair climbed to near two-week tops in the last hour, with bulls now looking to extend the momentum further beyond the 0.9800 round-figure mark. The...

Gegenüber dem Schweizer Franken notiert der Euro mit 1,0556 ebenfalls wenig verändert. Und der Dollar kostet 0,9777 Franken. Derweil interveniert die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) wohl weiterhin am Devisenmarkt. Denn die erneut kräftige Zunahme der Sichtguthaben – diese Woche um 6,7 Milliarden nach 11,7 Milliarden in der Vorwoche – deutet daraufhin, dass sich die SNB auch in der vergangenen Woche gegen die Aufwertung des Frankens gestemmt hat. An den...

On April 3, the Swiss government doubled its coronavirus emergency loan scheme to CHF40 billion after being flooded by requests for help by businesses. The Swiss government should scale up its efforts to help businesses overcome the coronavirus crisis, according to the director of the KOF Swiss Economic Instituteexternal link. Transport companies are also calling for more assistance. “If many companies are over-indebted after the crisis, they will not invest for...

An empty restaurant in Lucerne on March 20 (Keystone) The coronavirus pandemic has fundamentally changed the economic outlook for Switzerland within a very short period of time, with Swiss CFOs more pessimistic than ever before. Neither during the euro crisis nor during the Swiss franc shock were chief financial officers as negative about economic prospects as they are today, according to the latest half-yearly surveyexternal link published on Monday by consultants...

The unemployment rate wins again. In a saner era, back when what was called economic growth was actually economic growth, this primary labor ratio did a commendable job accurately indicating the relative conditions in the labor market. You didn’t go looking for corroboration because it was all around; harmony in numbers for a far more peaceful and serene period. Ever since the Great “Recession”, however, the unemployment rate has really struggled. Nearly the...

It was a relatively good weekend in virus-related news; measures of implied volatility continue to trend lower The dollar is trying to build on its recent gains; investors continue to try and gauge just how bad the US economy will get hit The outlook for oil prices remains highly uncertain and volatile Germany signaled that its stance regarding aid to the weaker eurozone countries remains unchanged; the news stream for the UK has turned negative Prime Minister Abe...

Modern central banks have already moved far beyond what was once considered the proper role for a central bank as a “lender of last resort.” Now Keynesians and MMTers (modern monetary theorists) want to take things even further. As the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent freezing of economic activity take place, many economists are hoping for central bankers and monetary policy to take the lead and steer the economy. However, this cannot possibly be the...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.01% to 1.0554 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, April 06(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Reports suggesting that some of the hot spots for the virus contagion appear to be leveling off, and this is helping underpin risk appetites today. The curve seems to be flattening in Italy, Spain, and France. In the US, there are some early signs of leveling off in NY, and now, the...

Recall that the initial deaths and related costs are only the first-order effects; policy makers have to consider the second-order effects. Everyone who reckons that the lockdown is needless and more destructive than the pandemic that triggered it has to answer this question: then why did China lockdown half its economy? The reasoning of those who reckon the lockdown is needless can be summarized as follows: 1. The lockdown is based on poorly executed extrapolations...

Hospitals are battling to cope with coronavirus, and now they are under financial pressure as well. (Keystone) Cash-strapped Swiss hospitals, in the front line of the fight against coronavirus, are calling for financial help and an end to the ban on non-emergency procedures which has sapped revenue, reports the SonntagsZeitung newspaper. It quotes the director of Valais Hospital Hugo Burgener as saying “we need liquidity to pay salaries”, and writes that the...