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Swiss Labour Force Survey in 4th quarter 2017: 0.6 percent increase in number of employed persons; unemployment rate based on ILO definition at 4.5 percent

G1. Switzerland, Total Number Employed and in Full-Time Equivalents
Author: Swiss Statistics
Categories: Swiss and European Macro

The number of employed persons in Switzerland rose by 0.6% between the 4th quarters of 2016 and 2017. During the same period, the unemployment rate as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) declined from 4.6% to 4.5%. The EU's unemployment rate decreased from 8.3% to 7.4%. These are some of the results of the Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS) conducted by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).

Euro area inflation: the Phillips curve and the ‘broad unemployment’ hypothesis

Euro area inflation: the Phillips curve and the ‘broad unemployment’ hypothesis
Author: Frederik Ducrozet
Categories: Pictet Macro Analysis, Swiss and European Macro

Monetary policy in 2018 is all about the Phillips curve. The extent to which wage growth and inflation respond to falling unemployment will shape the monetary tightening cycle. If recent price action is any guide, any surprise on that front could result in market overreaction and volatility spikes. The most elegant description of the current state of research was provided by ECB Executive Board member Benoît Coeuré last year, who described the Phillips curve as “flatter, non-linear or mis-specified in terms of the relevant economic slack”.

FX Daily, February 15: Stocks Jump, Bonds Dump, and the Dollar Slumps

FX Daily, February 15: Stocks Jump, Bonds Dump, and the Dollar Slumps
Author: Marc Chandler
Categories: FX Trends

The significant development this week has been the recovery of equities after last week's neck-breaking drop, while yields have continued to rise. The dollar has taken is cues from the risk-on impulse from the equity market and the sales of US bonds more than the resulting higher yields. Asia followed US equities higher.

Bitcoin and Crypto Prices Being Manipulated Like Precious Metals?

Bitcoin and Crypto Prices Being Manipulated Like Precious Metals?
Author: Mark O'Byrne
Categories: GoldCore

Bitcoin and Crypto Prices Being Manipulated Like Precious Metals? – FSN Interview GoldCore. Kerry Lutz of the Financial Survival Network (FSN) interviewed GoldCore’s Mark O’Byrne about the outlook for crypto currencies, financial markets and precious metals. Are bitcoin and crypto prices being manipulated like precious metals? Is there a coordinated backlash against bitcoin from JPM and powerful interests?

What Just Changed?

Asset Prices and GDP, 1992 - 2018
Author: Charles Hugh Smith
Categories: The United States

The illusion that risk can be limited delivered three asset bubbles in less than 20 years. Has anything actually changed in the past two weeks? The conventional bullish answer is no, nothing's changed; the global economy is growing virtually everywhere, inflation is near-zero, credit is abundant, commodities will remain cheap for the foreseeable future, assets are not in bubbles, and the global financial system is in a state of sustainable wonderfulness.

Seasonality of Individual Stocks – an Update

Bull Bear
Author: Dimitri Speck
Categories: Debt and the Fallacies of Paper Money, Stock Markets

Readers are very likely aware of the “Halloween effect” or the Santa Claus rally. The former term refers to the fact that stocks on average tend to perform significantly worse in the summer months than in the winter months, the latter term describes the typically very strong advance in stocks just before the turn of the year. Both phenomena apply to the broad stock market, this is to say, to benchmark indexes such as the S&P 500 or the DJIA.