Tag Archives: newsletter

Neuchâtel, 18 June 2018 (FSO) – In 2017, supplementary accommodation posted a total of 15.9 million overnight stays, i.e. an increase of 6.9% compared with 2016. With 10.8 million units, Swiss visitors represented more than two-thirds of demand (68.3%), i.e. a rise of 7.0%. Foreign visitors registered a 6.6% increase with 5.0 million units. Among this clientele, European visitors generated the most overnight stays with...

Swiss Federal Railways workers releasing balloons and demands in Zurich. Some 1,400 rail workers took to the streets across the country on Monday to protest a package of cuts and reforms planned by the Swiss Federal Railways. The demonstrations, called for by the Union for public transport workers (SEV), were spread across several Swiss cities: Geneva, Lausanne, Olten, Bern, and Zurich, where the largest event brought...

Stock Markets EM FX was mixed on Friday but capped off a largely losing week. MYR, CLP, and CNY were the best performers over the last week, while ARS, TRY, and ZAR were the worst. We expect EM FX to continue weakening, but note that with very few fundamental drivers this week, we may see some consolidation near-term. Stock Markets Emerging Markets, June 13 - Click to enlarge Singapore Singapore reports May...

See the introduction and the video for the terms gold basis, co-basis, backwardation and contango. Wrong-Way Event. Last week we said something that turned out to be prescient: This is not an environment for a Lift Off Event. An unfortunate technical mishap interrupted the latest moon-flight of the gold rocket. Fear not true believers, a few positive tracks were left behind. [PT] Fundamental Developments The price of...

All three of the major central banks met last week and confirmed that monetary policy would continue to diverge for at least another year.  The clarity of the trajectory of monetary policy reduces the impact of high-frequency economic data. There are three major disruptive forces the make for a challenging investment climate just the same: the US policy mix, trade tensions, and immigration. The mix of tighter monetary...

Summary US-China trade tensions are rising. Pakistan devalued the rupee for a third time since December. Bulgaria will seek to join the eurozone banking union and ERM-2 simultaneously. The National Bank of Hungary appears to have tilted more hawkish. Newly elected Egyptian President El-Sisi shuffled his cabinet. Argentina has a new central bank chief after Federico Sturzenegger resigned. Chile central bank signaled...

Bad Hair Day Produces Positive Divergences On Friday the ongoing trade dispute between the US and China was apparently escalated by a notch to the next level, at least verbally. The Trump administration announced a list of tariffs that are supposed to come into force in three week’s time and China clicked back by announcing retaliatory action. In effect, the US government said: take that China, we will now really hurt...

The number of registered unemployed in Switzerland dropped by 9% in May 2018 to a rate of 2.4%, down from 2.7% in April, according to a report by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The rate in May 2018 was 22% lower than in May 2017. ©-Sculpies-_-Dreamstime.com_ - Click to enlarge Switzerland’s unemployment hasn’t been this low since 2008. In March 2018, SECO changed the way it calculates unemployment...

© Lovelyday12 | Dreamstime.com Yesterday, Switzerland’s National Council, or parliament, voted 95 to 94, with 3 abstentions, to introduce quotas for the management and boards of quoted companies. Boards will be required to have 30% women and management teams 20%. The rules could affect 250 companies. At the same time the quotas will not come with sanctions. Companies would have to explain why the quotas had not been met...

US consumers continue to recover from their debt splurge at the end of last year. Combined with still weaker income growth, the Federal Reserve estimates that aggregate revolving credit balances grew only marginally for the fourth straight month in April 2018. To put it in perspective, the total for revolving credit (seasonally adjusted) is up a mere $2.2 billion for all four months of this year combined, compared to...