Tag Archives: Featured

What shape are the markets in right now? This month, Credit Suisse Global CIO Michael Strobaek discusses growth in the global and Swiss economies and explains the right investment strategies during the growth phase. Global economic growth. Switzerland is doing well too. It is encouraging that the global economy is in good shape despite the disparate growth rates in the various regions this year. The Swiss economy is...

“Most households can no longer afford to buy property in the top financial centres without a substantial inheritance”. Sound familiar to Zurich and Geneva dwellers? An index by Swiss bank UBS shows significant risks of real estate bubbles in booming cities such as Hong Kong, Munich and Toronto. The Swiss cities of Zurich and Geneva remain relatively stable. The 2018 Global Real Estate Bubble Indexexternal link,...

Despite the recent fall in French consumer confidence, spending should pick up in the second half of the year. The French economy disappointed in the first half of this year. While there was a widespread ‘soft patch’ in the euro area, the source and size of the slowdown in France stands out. The real GDP growth rate fell by 0.5 points, much more than the rest of the euro area. Moreover, while the slowdown in the other...

August looks back on positive economic and market developments. In retrospect, the first half of the year was soothed by many pleasant surprises, including much-discussed trouble spots that never flared. Read about four perceived market crises. Perceived market crisis 1: Explosion of credit spreads A regular hot-button issue for investors is the perceptibly explosive credit risks that our economy poses. It’s nice to...

The Federal Reserve did what it was widely to do. The fed funds target range was lifted 25 bp to 2.00-2.25%. Three-quarters of Fed officials anticipate a hike in December. The market had discounted around an 80% chance. The Fed sticks with the three rate hikes in 2019 and one in 2020. The year-end rate in 2021 is the same as in 2020. The Fed is signaling that it does not expect the fed funds target to move above...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.49% at 1.1317 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, September 28(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates The US dollar’s post-Fed gains have been extended, though the upside momentum appears to be stalling. Japan’s Nikkei advanced 1.35% on the back of the yen’s declines and reached its highest level since 1991. Chinese shares (A and H)...

Financial conditions remain supportive and are not expected to tighten much in the coming months. Lending to non-financial corporations in the euro grew by an annual 4.2% in August, its fastest rate since April 2009. Forward-looking indicators suggest that euro area credit growth should remain strong over the coming months. Overall, domestic demand is likely to continue to be the main driver of growth in the euro area,...

The UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2018 report is produced by UBS Global Wealth Management’s Chief Investment Office and analyzes residential property prices in 20 developed market financial centers around the world. Hong Kong faces the greatest risk of a housing bubble, followed in descending order by Munich, Toronto, Vancouver, Amsterdam, and London. Stockholm and Sydney moved out of bubble risk territory this...

– There has been a recent change for the better in central bank attitudes to gold – There has been “net gold demand by central banks – approx. 500 tonnes per year – as a source of return, liquidity and diversification” –  Policy shift to maintaining stable gold holdings reflects central bank concerns about financial markets and geopolitics – Little in the current global economic and political environment to support any...

June 13 sticks out for both eurodollar futures as well as IOER. On the surface, there should be no bearing on the former from the latter. They are technically unrelated; IOER being a current rate applied as an intended money alternative. Eurodollar futures are, as the term implies, about where all those money rates might fall in the future. Still, the eurodollar curve inverted conspicuously starting June 13. That was...