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Overview: The markets remain hopeful about a re-opening in China and continue to pour into Chinese stocks on the mainland and in Hong Kong. The index of Chinese companies that trade in the US rose nearly 22.4% last week. Large bourses in the Asia Pacific region were mixed, but China and Hong Kong stand out. Europe’s Stoxx 600 is nursing a small loss for the second consecutive session. US equity futures have a slightly heavier bias. European 10-year yields are 2-5...

The European Investment Bank (EIB) — in collaboration with Goldman Sachs Bank Europe, Santander and Société Générale — launched Project Venus, their second euro-denominated digitally native bond issue and first using private blockchain technology. The €100 million, two-year bond was issued, recorded and settled using private blockchain-based technology, and represents the inaugural issuance on Goldman Sachs’ tokenisation platform – GS DAPTM. Banque de France and the...

Despite a global venture capital (VC) pullback, shrinking valuations and public market turmoil, Germany’s blockchain VC funding market remained stable this year, with companies in the space securing a total of US$218 million across 20 deals year-to-date (YTD), just US$37 million short of 2021’s US$255 million, a new report by CV VC, a Swiss VC and private equity firm specialized in cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions, shows. The German Blockchain Report, released...

They read like Civil War battlefields: Chattanooga, Tennessee; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Greer, South Carolina; West Point, Georgia; Montgomery, Alabama; Tupelo, Mississippi; Smyrna, Tennessee. They are the towns and small cities in the Deep South where America now builds its cars and trucks. Take Greer, for example (population of thirty-five thousand as of 2020). Located in the foothills of the bucolic Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwest corner of South Carolina, it is...

Total employed workers fell for the second month in a row in November, dropping nearly 400,000 workers below the pre-pandemic peak in February 2020. According to new employment data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, the current population survey shows employed workers fell to 158,470,000 in November, down 138,000 from October’s total of 158,608,000. This continues a nine-month trend in which the total number of employed persons has moved...

A federal initiative aimed at subsidising health insurance premiums once they exceed 10% of disposable income met with resistance in Bern this week, reported RTS. Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.comThe idea, which was put forward by the Socialist Party, would require the federal government to foot two thirds of the bill for the subsidy with cantons left to find the remaining third. First the plan was rejected by the Federal Council on the grounds that some cantons...

Once again, the dollar was sold into a shallow bounce as the bears maintained the upper hand. There is a growing conviction that the peak in the Fed's tightening cycle is within view, despite more robust than expected jobs growth and an unexpectedly strong rise in average weekly earnings. After rallying through September, the US dollar's pullback was extended last week. Despite the oversold momentum indicators, dollar bounces have proved short and shallow. Falling...

The week ahead is more than an interlude before five G10 central banks meet on December 14-15. The data highlights include the US ISM services and producer prices, Chinese trade and inflation measures, Japanese wages, household consumption, and the current account. Also, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of Canada hold policy meetings. Central banks from India, Poland, Brazil, Peru, and Chile also meet.The dollar appreciated in Q1 and Q2 despite the economy...

There’s an idea rooted among some libertarians that the Federal Reserve was originally a sound institution but has grown corrupt. As a bankers’ bank, it was fine, they believe, but not as the monster it has grown to be. If we could only go back to the Fed’s founding charter, all would be well. I’m thinking of two well-known financial analysts who are unsurpassed in their analytical brilliance and knowledge of markets and who rightly regard the bureaucratic Federal...

Every three months the rate of interest used to set the rents in Switzerland is reviewed. If it goes down some renters have the right to request a decrease in rent. If it goes up landlords can push up rents. This time the rate remained at 1.25%, however it looks set to rise next year. The interest rate used to set the reference rate is the average rate on Swiss mortgage loans outstanding at 30 September 2022. The average rate was 1.18%, up from 1.17% from the second...