Summary North Korean banks subject to international sanctions have been banned from using Swift. Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld Parliament’s motion to impeach President Park. Singapore eased some property market curbs after a three-year decline in home prices. Egypt partially reversed a cut in bread subsidies. Nigeria’s President Buhari returned to the nation after spending nearly two months in the UK. Moody’s...
Read More »FX Daily, March 10: US Jobs Data: Deja Vu All Over Again?
Swiss Franc EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, March 10(see more posts on EUR/CHF, ) - Click to enlarge GBP/CHF Sterling vs the Swiss Franc has fallen to its lowest level in two months as the Pound is continuing to be dragged down by what is happening with the uncertainty caused by when Article 50 will be triggered. Article 50 has been debated in the House of Lords and a challenge concerning the rights of Europeans...
Read More »Solid US Jobs Report in line with Expectations
The US jobs report was largely in line with expectations. February was the second consecutive month that the US economy created more than 200k jobs. United States Nonfarm payrolls It is the first time since last June and July. The 235k is just below the revised January 238k gain (initially 227k). U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls, February 2017(see more posts on U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls, ) Source: Investing.com - Click to...
Read More »Low strength cannabis sales explode across Switzerland
© Perry Toone | Dreamstime.com According to an article in Tribune de Genève, some cigarette vendors are desperately searching for supplies of the drug to meet demand. Recently kiosques in Geneva started selling low strength cannabis like they sell cigarettes. Some kiosque owners are over the moon, while others desperately search for a supplier. One vendor told Tribune de Genève: “I don’t have any. For three days people...
Read More »James Rickards: Long-Term Forecast For $10,000 Gold
James Rickards: Long-Term Forecast For $10,000 Gold James Rickards, geopolitical and monetary expert and best selling author of the ‘The New Case for Gold’ has written an interesting piece for the Daily Reckoning on why he believes gold will reach $10,000 in the long term. Gold in USD Adjusted for Inflation 1970-2017 – Macrotrends.net He warns of the many systemic and geopolitical risks including the EU elections, from...
Read More »Same Country, Different Worlds
To my mind, “reflation” has always proceeded under false pretenses. This goes for more than just the latest version, as we witnessed the same incongruity in each of the prior three. The trend is grounded in mere hope more than rational analysis, largely because I think human nature demands it. We are conditioned to believe especially in the 21st century that the worst kinds of things are either unrealistic or apply to...
Read More »Same Country, Different Worlds
To my mind, “reflation” has always proceeded under false pretenses. This goes for more than just the latest version, as we witnessed the same incongruity in each of the prior three. The trend is grounded in mere hope more than rational analysis, largely because I think human nature demands it. We are conditioned to believe especially in the 21st century that the worst kinds of things are either unrealistic or apply to...
Read More »Do Record Eurodollar Balances Matter? Not Even Slightly
The BIS in its quarterly review published yesterday included a reference to the eurodollar market (thanks to M. Daya for pointing it out). The central bank to central banks, as the outfit is often called, is one of the few official institutions that have taken a more objective position with regard to the global money system. Of the very few who can identify eurodollars, or have even heard of them, the BIS while not...
Read More »Weekly Sight Deposits and Speculative Positions: Each week an intervention record.
Headlines Week March 06, 2017 We were arguing in the last weeks, that the EUR/CHF is trending towards parity. There are three reasons: Continuing SNB interventions Strengthening Swiss local demand, as also visible in the GDP release. Speculators increase their dollar shorts against Euro and reduce them against CHF. Point 3 was not fulfilled last week. FX Last week:The EUR/CHF remained around 1.0650, the level where the...
Read More »Weekly Speculative Position: More CHF Shorts, Less EUR Shorts this time
Swiss Franc Speculators were net short CHF in January 2015, shortly before the end of the peg, with 26.4K contracts. Then again in December 2015, when they expected a Fed rate hike, with 25.5K contracts. The biggest short CHF, however, happened in June 2007, when speculators were net short 80K contracts. Shortly after, the U.S. subprime crisis started. The carry trade against CHF collapsed. The...
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