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Swiss Franc The Swiss Franc remained nearly unchanged against the euro. It fell to 1.0875 during the day and recovered with the good U.S. new home sales data. Click to enlarge. FX Rates The US dollar is narrowly mixed. The euro, yen and Swiss franc are higher, while the dollar-bloc and sterling are softer. The moving element here is not so much the greenback, which serving more as a fulcrum, but idiosyncratic,...

A Litany of Failures It was widely expected that the BoJ would announce something this week after it promised to perform a comprehensive review of its monetary policy. It certainly did deliver a major tweak to its inflationary program, but its implications were seemingly not entirely clear to everybody (probably not even to the BoJ). There were many reasons for the BoJ to review its policies. For one thing, they...

In der gestrigen Ausgabe der NZZ am Sonntag wird Nobelpreisträger Paul Krugman zitiert, wie er den Mindestkurs der SNB und deren Negativzinsen lobt. Die Negativzinsen seien ein „wertvolles Experiment“ meint er und „bedankt“ sich dafür sogar bei der SNB. „Die Schweiz eruiert neues Territorium. Aus akademischer Sicht liebe ich das.“ Die SNB hat sich also zum Versuchskaninchen der internationalen...

The US Dollar Index has been trending higher since early May.  This Great Graphic, created on Bloomberg shows, that it has been successfully tested several times. It appears set to be re-tested in the coming days.  It comes in near 94.80 today and rises a little more than two ticks a day to finish the week near 94.90. Technical indicators, like the RSI, MACDs, and Slow Stochastics suggest there is reasonably good...

The governed are ready for a period of retrenchment, consolidation and diplomatic solutions to unwinnable conflicts, as imperfect as the peace might be to hawks. Are you open to a somewhat unconventional perspective on this election? If so, read on. If you’re absolutely confident you know all there is know about this election (good vs evil, Democrat vs. Republican, etc.), well then let’s compare notes in five years and...

Submitted by ‘Kevnice’ via ForeignByNature.com, In April 2012, I returned to Switzerland – my country of birth – to commence a new phase of my adult life. Naturally, one of the first steps to undertake when establishing oneself in a new country is to open a bank account. I went down to the local Raiffeisen bank branch in the village of Aesch, Luzern, where my relatives and ancestors had lived and worked as farmers for...

Swiss Franc The EUR/CHF accelerated its decline since yesterday’s strong Swiss trade balance data. The second reason was certainly the Fed decided to keep rates unchanged. We know that the Swiss Franc has similar “counter-dollar” status as gold. Click to enlarge. Japan Much of what the Bank of Japan announced today had been largely leaked. While there was a sizeable response in the asset markets, the dollar’s...

In a report published by SECO, a group of economy experts working for Switzerland’s federal government, says it anticipates an acceleration in economic growth in Switzerland from 0.8% in 2015 to 1.5% in 2016 and 1.9% in 2017. Along side this they expect unemployment to rise from 3.3% in 2015, to an annual average of 3.6% in 2016, before falling again to 3.4% in 2017. However, they also see risks. © Flynt |...

A question worth asking considering the rather large amount of them knocking about at the moment. According to JPM, the total universe of government bonds traded with a negative yield was $3.6tr last week or 16 per cent of the JPM Global Government Bond Index. It’s an answer in itself, really. Anyway, here’s a list of those willing/ forced to buy those negative yielding government bonds from JPM’s Niko...

Swiss watch exports fell in August as demand weakened from Japan to the U.S., extending the industry’s slump to fourteen months. The Swiss watch industry is strongly correlated with the growth in Asia. While the chemical and pharmaceutical industry (the “Basel companies”) export a lot into the United States. The firmer is currently weakening, while the latter profits on the stronger dollar and “Obamacare demand”. As...