Tag Archives: Featured

What just happened in Europe? The short answer is T-LTRO. The ECB is getting back to being “accommodative” again. This isn’t what was supposed to be happening at this point in time. Quite the contrary, Europe’s central bank had been expecting to end all its programs and begin normalizing interest rates. The reaction to this new round was immediately negative: The euro and euro zone government bond yields fell sharply...

Recently published figures show a 7% decline in the percentage of men in Switzerland’s workforce between 1991 and 2018. © Volker Husberg _ Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge The workforce figures, which include the unemployed, show a fall in male workforce participation from 81% to 74%, a 7% decline over 27 years. At the same time, the percentage of women working rose 6% from 57% to 63% from 1991 to 2018. Across both...

We’re changing the format on our Macro updates, breaking the report into two parts. This is part one, a review of the data released the previous month with charts to highlight the ones we deem important. We’ll post another one next week that will be more commentary and the market based indicators we use to monitor recession risk. We are still playing catch up on the economic data releases due to the government...

China increased its gold reserves for a third straight month in February, data from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) showed this morning. The value of China’s gold reserves rose slightly to $79.498 billion in February from $79.319 billion at the end of January, as the central bank increased the total amount of gold reserves to 60.260 million fine troy ounces from 59.940 million troy ounces. The People’s Bank of China...

Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.31% at 1.1324 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 07(see more posts on EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The ECB meeting is today’s highlight. A dovish signal is expected. The euro remains pinned near its lows ahead it. The global equity market rally in January and February is faltering this week. Asian equities were mixed, but the...

The holiday season was shaping up to be a good one, perhaps a very good one. All the signs seemed to be pointing in that direction, especially if you were a worker. All throughout last year, beginning partway through 2017, there wasn’t a day that went by without some mainstream story “reporting” on America’s labor shortage. It was so ubiquitous, this economic boom idea, the media created several spinoffs. The...

Fifth banknote in latest series showcases Switzerland’s communicative flair The Swiss National Bank (SNB) will begin issuing the new 1000-franc note on 13 March 2019. Following the 50, 20, 10 and 200-franc notes, this is the fifth of six denominations in the new banknote series to be released. The current eighth-series banknotes remain legal tender until further notice. The inspiration behind the new banknote series is...

Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.02% at 1.1353 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 06(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The capital markets are on edge. The week’s big events lie ahead.  The Bank of Canada meets today and the ECB tomorrow, followed by US (and Canada) employment data on Friday. The equity markets are mixed. While Japan and Korean equities...

Mario Draghi’s term at the helm of the ECB is winding down. He will step down in October. It has not been an easy job. The light at the end of the tunnel in 2017 turned out to be another train in 2018. The eurozone enjoyed 0.7% quarterly growth every quarter in 2017. The ECB was able to outline an exit from its asset purchases. The debate began over sequencing and when the first rate hike could be delivered. But alas,...

The ECB’s decision on (T)LTRO will matter most to the euro area periphery banks who have been the biggest consumers of current TLTROs. Considering the weakness in most economic indicators the ECB should maintain an adequate degree of monetary accommodation. This will likely require delivering another longer-term refinancing operation (LTRO, targeted or not) to avoid any tightening in liquidity and credit conditions. We...