Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.09% to 1.0562 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, April 22(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Risk-appetites appear to have stabilized for the moment. Most equity markets are higher. Japan and Malaysia were exceptions, but the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose for the first time this week. In Europe, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is recouping about a third of yesterday’s loss. The S&P...
Read More »FX Daily, March 10: Markets Stabilize after Body Blow
Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.09% to 1.0597 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 10(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: It appears after a few days of miscues, US officials struck the right chord, and the global capital markets seemed to stabilize shortly after the US session ended. President Trump’s press conference today is expected to spell out in greater detail relief for households and businesses....
Read More »FX Daily, March 9: Monday Meltdown
Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.07% to 1.059 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 09(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Equities plunged, and yields sank as the coronavirus threatens a global recession. The oil price war signaled by Saudi Arabia and Russia aggravates the desperate situation. Equities markets in the Asia Pacific region slumped 3-7%. The Shanghai Composite was fell 3%. The Nikkei was off by...
Read More »FX Daily, February 26: Dramatic Investor Adjustment Continues
Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.16% to 1.0601 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 26(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The warning by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention that Americans should prepare for an outbreak of Covid-19 sent the S&P 500 tumbling to an 11-week low and the 10-year Treasury yield to a record low near 1.30%. The volatility of the S&P (VIX) jumped to its...
Read More »FX Daily, February 24: Stocks Slammed and Yields Drop as Virus Containment Fails
Swiss Franc The Euro has fallen by 0.15% to 1.0588 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, February 24(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The ring of containment of Covid-19 has grown from China. The new frontline is Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Iran. A lockdown of around 50k people near Milan and Austria blocking trains from Italy is scaring investors. Asian markets fell, but South Korea bore the brunt with a...
Read More »European Data: Much More In Store For Number Four
It’s just Germany. It’s just industry. The excuses pile up as long as the downturn. Over across the Atlantic the situation has only now become truly serious. The European part of this globally synchronized downturn is already two years long and just recently is it becoming too much for the catcalls to ignore. Central bankers are trying their best to, obviously, but the numbers just aren’t stacking up their way. We’ve seen all this before, repeatedly. Part of the...
Read More »As the Data Comes In, 2019 Really Did End Badly
The coronavirus began during December, but in its early stages no one knew a thing about it. It wasn’t until January 1 that health authorities in China closed the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market after initially determining some wild animals sold there might have been the source of a pneumonia-like outbreak. On January 5, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission issued a statement saying it wasn’t SARS or MERS, and that the spreading disease would be probed. In other...
Read More »European Economy: A Time Recession
Eurostat confirmed earlier today that Europe has so far avoided recession. At least, it hasn’t experienced what Economists call a cyclical peak. During the third quarter of 2019, Real GDP expanded by a thoroughly unimpressive +0.235% (Q/Q). This was a slight acceleration from a revised +0.185% the quarter before. The real question, though, is whether the business cycle approach means anything in this day and age. I don’t think it does, and that’s a big part of why...
Read More »FX Daily, October 28: Politics Dominates Start of the Week before Yielding to Policy and Economics
Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.24% to 1.104 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, October 28(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: The pre-weekend rally in US shares, with the S&P 500 flirting with record highs and the back-up in US yields, set the tone for Asia Pacific trading earlier today. Nearly all the equity markets advanced, and bond yields rose. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 took a five-day advancing...
Read More »Entertainment TV, Politics, and Cognitive Skills
In the July issue of the American Economic Review, Ruben Durante, Paolo Pinotti, and Andrea Tesei argue that entertainment TV has shaped Italian politics and affected the cognitive skills of viewers. From the abstract: We study the political impact of commercial television in Italy exploiting the staggered introduction of Berlusconi’s private TV network, Mediaset, in the early 1980s. We find that individuals with early access to Mediaset all-entertainment content were more likely to vote...
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