Tag Archives: Swiss Markets and News

© Marcovarro | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge Swisscom’s fixed line (remember those) customers will be given the option of blocking unwanted calls from 28 November. The service will be free and can be activated by checking a box online or by calling the Swisscom hotline (0800 800 800). Sunrise and UPC are expected to follow Swisscom by mid 2017, according to 24 Heures. The new system automatically filters out...

Freienbach in Schwyz source_wikipedia_Roland zh - Click to enlarge Last Friday, the federal Swiss tax office published the latest statistics covering the wealth and earnings of the nation’s more than 5 million tax payers – Switzerland has wealth tax, so net worth is included in tax returns. The highest percentage of the very wealthiest (CHF 10 million plus) lived in Schwyz. Geneva also made the top five cantons in...

If there’s one country with reason to resent the rise of populist movements, it’s Switzerland. Twenty-two months after it abandoned its 1.20-per-euro exchange-rate cap, the Swiss National Bank still finds the franc in focus every time there’s a major event that threatens to upset markets. Donald Trump’s ascendancy to the White House pushed the currency to the strongest level since the wake of June’s Brexit vote, and...

Today, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced a new agreement with the Federal Department of Finance, to pay the Swiss confederation and cantons CHF 1 billion per year, as was previously the case. The deal will run from 2016 to 2020, according to an official press release. © Phillip Judd The deal differs from the past because it requires shortfall payments. In years when the SNB doesn’t have enough reserves, the...

SMI A rally in pharmaceutical and banking shares helped boost the Swiss Market Index this week as investors weighed the prospect of a Trump’ presidency in the United States. SMI Index, November 11 - Click to enlarge Economic Data Stocks in the healthcare sector jumped after Donald Trump’s victory as drug pricing reforms, proposed by Hillary Clinton, are now unlikely to materialize.  Pharma heavyweights Roche...

Where you are born makes a big difference to the chances of getting a job when you leave school. In 2015, youth unemployment rates in some OECD countries such as Greece (49.8%), Spain (48.3%) and Italy (40.3%) were all close to 50%. In others such as Germany (7.2%), Austria (10.6%) and Switzerland (8.6%), youth unemployment was far lower. Why? The Young Workers Index 2016, an annual report by PWC, offers some...

The Swiss government urged rejection of a popular initiative that would transform the monetary system and end fractional-reserve banking, according to its dispatch to Parliament. The measure seeks to put the central bank solely in charge of money supply and forbid commercial banks from granting loans that aren’t fully backed by deposits, effectively ending the way banking has been conducted for centuries. It’s a...

While the bearish sentiment that engulfed European equities in recent weeks is being vindicated, health-care stocks are easing the pain. [embedded content] The region’s largest industry group headed for its biggest jump in more than 14 months, tempering losses for equity benchmarks after Donald Trump won the race to govern the region’s biggest export market. Novo Nordisk A/S and Shire Plc rose more than 5 percent,...

Angela Merkel © Joachim Eckel | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge Swiss talks with the European Union about immigration restrictions mustn’t be impacted by the U.K.’s decision to leave the bloc, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “In the EU, we should carry on negotiations with Switzerland in the same way as we would have if there were no question on Britain,” Merkel said after a meeting with Swiss President Johann...

© Gerd Kohlmus | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge The promise of snow across the Alps this weekend won’t be enough to lift the gloom at some of Europe’s top ski resorts as the pound’s post-Brexit slide dents British bookings. Jon Fricker, a property developer in Beaconsfield, west of London, said some of his friends would probably back out of their annual piste reunion if the cost of a long weekend in the Portes du...