FX Daily, August 23: Market has Second Thoughts on Magnitude of Fed Cuts Ahead of Powell

Powell speech at Jackson Hole stands before the weekend.  Equities in Asia and Europe are finishing the week on a firm tone.  Most markets in the Asia Pacific region closed higher today, and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index snapped a four-week slide.  European bourses are edging higher, and the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is poised to end its three-week air pocket.

Die Nationalbank riskiert Ärger mit Donald Trump

Die Deviseninterventionen der Schweizerischen Nationalbank sorgen für Spannungen. Die Schweiz läuft Gefahr, von den USA als Währungsmanipulatorin gebrandmarkt zu werden. (K)ein Grund zur Sorge? In den vergangenen Wochen hat die Schweizerische Nationalbank (SNB) wiederholt am Devisenmarkt interveniert, um den Franken davor zu bewahren, noch stärker gegen die wichtigsten Handelswährungen wie Euro und Dollar zu steigen.

Swiss Labour Force Survey in 2nd quarter 2019: number of persons in employment rises by 1.1 percent, unemployment rate based on the ILO definition falls to 4.2 percent

The number of employed persons in Switzerland rose by 1.1% between the 2nd quarter 2018 and the 2nd quarter 2019. During the same period, the unemployment rate as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) fell from 4.6% to 4.2%. The EU unemployment rate based on the ILO definition decreased from 6.8% to 6.3%. These are some of the results from the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS).

Swiss food-waste pioneer wins CHF200,000 prize

This year’s CHF200,000 ($204,000) J.E. Brandenberger Foundation prize has been awarded to Yvonne Kurzmeyer, founder of the charity organisation Schweizer Tafel. The organisation redistributes over 4,000 tonnes of food a year to underprivileged groups in Switzerland.

FX Daily, August 23: Market has Second Thoughts on Magnitude of Fed Cuts Ahead of Powell

Powell speech at Jackson Hole stands before the weekend.  Equities in Asia and Europe are finishing the week on a firm tone.  Most markets in the Asia Pacific region closed higher today, and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index snapped a four-week slide.  European bourses are edging higher, and the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is poised to end its three-week air pocket.

Our Wile E. Coyote Federal Reserve

Whatever the Fed chooses to do, it's already failed.. Wile E. Coyote has gotten a bad rap: in all fairness, his schemes are ingenious, if overly complicated, and it's not his fault that the Acme detonator misfires or the Road Runner doesn't respond as predicted. Every set-up to nail the Road Runner should work. That it fails and leaves him suspended over the cliff for a woefully brief second to intuit his impending doom really isn't his fault.

“More of the same” at the ECB increases gold’s appeal

“The intellectual leaders of the peoples have produced and propagated the fallacies which are on the point of destroying liberty and Western civilization.” Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos. It took multiple meetings and over 50 hours of official negotiations for EU leaders to reach an agreement on the appointments for the top jobs of the EU and the ECB, but in mid-July the results finally came in.

Scientific Long-Term Study Confirms: Seasonality is the Best Investment Strategy!

A Pleasant Surprise. You can probably imagine that I am convinced of the merits of seasonality. However, even I was surprised that an investment strategy based on seasonality is apparently leaving numerous far more popular strategies in the dust. And yet, this is exactly what a recent comprehensive scientific study asserts – a study that probably considers a longer time span than most: it examines up to 217 years of market history!

Impressive Swiss Recovery After SNB Peg Removal

Retail data shows that the SNB peg removal in January 2015 as early as April 2015 with minimal adverse impact on the economy. Trade surplus showed that Switzerland had fully recovered its lost trade surplus in May and expectations crossed an important threshold into positive territory in June. CHF strengthened since May end, as the market caught wind of the Swiss recovery, and the Grexit would further strengthen the CHF if it were to occur.

Swiss Franc History: Volcker’s defeat of inflation strengthens dollar, weakens Swiss franc

7) Economic Theory

Weak Yen, Is it Really a Currency War?

Some journalists, like Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the U.K.'s Telegraph and Michael Casey of the Wall Street Journal, have already claimed this to be a shot in the currency wars. Casey focuses exclusively on the BOJ activity and does not even mention GPIF. Evans-Pritchard spends most of his time talking about the bearish yen implications of the increased BOJ purchases, and mentions GPIF only at the very end of the his essay, and even then to...