Category Archive: 3) Swiss Markets and News

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Investec is a distinctive Specialist Bank and Asset Manager. We provide a diverse range of financial products and services to a niche client base in three principal markets, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia, as well as certain other geographies. Investec’s strategic goals are motivated by the desire to develop an efficient and integrated business on an international scale through the active pursuit of clearly established core competencies in the group’s principal business areas.
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The hidden cost of Christmas gifts

2016-12-22

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2016-12-22

Value Destroying
If you haven’t had a chance to go Christmas shopping don’t despair, gifts destroy value. For example, someone on a diet is unlikely to place much value on a box of chocolates. The difference between what was paid for the chocolates and what the recipient would have paid represents destroyed value. They could have been left on the shelf for someone who would have fully valued them. Economists call this deadweight loss.

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Swiss watch exports poised for worst year since 1984: chart

2016-12-21

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2016-12-21

Watch Drop Exports of Swiss timepieces
The number of watches Switzerland exports is on track to reach the lowest level since 1984, when digital timepieces were in vogue and Swatch Group AG had just been formed in reaction to low-cost competition.

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Police say no terror links to Zurich mosque gunman

2016-12-20

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2016-12-20

Around 80 people were gathered at the Islamic centre on Monday evening (Keystone)
Police say the man responsible for the shooting incident at the Zurich Islamic Centre on Monday evening was a 24-year-old Swiss with Ghanaian roots. They said there appears to be no link to radical groups. The man's motive for the mosque shooting and a separate murder on Sunday remains unclear.

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Swiss to avoid EU clash as immigration bill passes final hurdle

2016-12-20

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2016-12-20

European Comission
After three years of uncertainty, Switzerland may just have solved its immigration dispute with the European Union. Lawmakers in Bern on Friday passed a bill designed to curb EU immigration by giving locals a head start on filling job vacancies. By supporting the measure — which sidesteps quotas — they aim to prevent a deeper dispute that could cost the country crucial trade deals.

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Swiss-based Glencore’s Rosneft deal reopens battle for Russian commodities

2016-12-18

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2016-12-18

Rosneft
In the cutthroat world of commodities trading, there’s no bigger prize than Russia. The country of Vladimir Putin has it all: oil, natural gas, aluminum, nickel, wheat, coal and many other riches. The world’s biggest trading houses have jostled over it for decades.

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Swiss pay doesn’t always match company success, Ethos says

2016-12-17

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2016-12-17

carrot
Switzerland continues to see a disconnect between executive pay and company performance three years after voters passed some of the world’s strictest limits on compensation, according to a study by corporate governance group Ethos.

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December rally continues this week for SMI

2016-12-16

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2016-12-16

SMI vs. MSCI World Week, December 16
2016’s December rally continued this week as Swiss and European equities outperformed global stocks. The US dollar continued to surge after the Federal Reserve increased interest rates for only the second time in a decade on Wednesday.

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Swiss fact: Switzerland is one of the world’s top 5 coffee exporters

2016-12-16

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2016-12-16

Swiss Coffee Exports
According to UN trade statistics, the small Alpine nation exported US$ 2.4 billion1 of coffee in 2013. This figure is far higher than its cheese (US$ 615 million2) or chocolate (US$ 822 million3) exports, two far more famous Swiss exports.

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WTI Crude tumbles To $49 Handle, Erases OPEC/NOPEC Deal Gains

2016-12-15

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2016-12-15

WTI Crude
But, but, but... growth, and inflation, and supply cuts, and growth again... Well that de-escalated quickly... As Libya restarts exports and The Fed sends the dollar soaring so WTI crude prices just broke back to a $49 handle for the first time since Dec 8th.

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Swiss banks probed at home over Brazil’s ‘Carwash’ bribe scandal

2016-12-14

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2016-12-14

Swiss frank
The Switzerland attorney general’s office is shifting its focus to banks operating in the country as it continues to investigate Brazil’s bribery scandal, after plea deals with individual executives provided fresh insights into how the illicit funds flowed through the financial system.

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Migros Bank could pass on negative interest rates

2016-12-13

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2016-12-13

Because of negative interest, even a savings account earning 0% interest is earning too much reckons the bank’s boss. Soon many banks will be passing on some of the cost of negative interest to their clients, reports 20 Minutes. Migros Bank will need to seriously consider doing the same in 2017.

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Who Has To Work The Longest To Afford An iPhone?

2016-12-13

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2016-12-13

Time Required for Iphone 6
How many hours must you work to buy a new iPhone? It varies dramatically around the world, reflecting disparities in productivity and purchasing power. According to a recent report by UBS that aims to measure well-being by estimating how many minutes workers in various countries must work to afford either an iphone, a Big Mac, a kilo of bread or a kilo of rice, the average worker in Zurich or New York can buy an iPhone 6 in under three working days.

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Credit Suisse planning more Swiss job cuts

2016-12-11

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2016-12-11

Credit suisse Zurich
Credit Suisse Group AG is preparing a new cost-savings program that puts as many as 1,300 jobs in Switzerland on the line, according to Schweiz am Sonntag. The plan will be announced Wednesday, when the lender holds its investor day in London, the newspaper said, without saying where it got the information. Credit Suisse’s Swiss unit may slash an additional 1,000 to 1,300 positions, or about eight to 10 percent of the unit’s workforce, it said.

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Which Of These Would You Rather Have In Your Safe?

2016-12-10

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2016-12-10

Safe
Let’s say you have two equal size safety deposit boxes. One box you completely fill up with stacks of $100 bills. The other box you fill up with gold. Which of the two is “worth” more? It’s easy to calculate. A stack of 100x $100 bills is 6.14 inches long, 2.61 inches wide, and 0.43 inches tall. That’s a volume of 6.89 cubic inches (112.92 cubic centimeters… and we’ll use the metric system from here on out because it really does make more...

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Pension payments could become compulsory for self-employed in Switzerland

2016-12-10

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2016-12-10

Swiss francs
Switzerland’s Federal Council is looking at a proposal to make pension payments compulsory for self-employed workers in the same way that they are for salaried workers.

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Adoption Of The Euro Has Been ‘Unequivocally Bad’ For Southern European Economies

2016-12-10

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2016-12-10

Some say that the common currency prevents less productive economies from cheating by weakening their national currencies and forces them to become more efficient and competitive. Industrial production data shows that it is not the case. Italy, France, Greece and Portugal have not only stopped producing more; they are producing now less than in 1990! The decay started immediately after the introduction of the euro in 2002!

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Uncertainty prevails everywhere, says Draghi, but apparently investors don’t mind

2016-12-09

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2016-12-09

SMI vs. MSCI World, December 09
According to European Central Bank President Mario Draghi “uncertainty prevails everywhere” but apparently investors don’t mind. Market participants shrugged off last weekends “no” to constitutional reform in Italy and the subsequent resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to push European indices to 12 month highs this week.

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Swiss EU immigration – unfortunately there is no plan B, says president in interview

2016-12-09

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2016-12-09

Switzerland’s plan to solve an immigration dilemma with the European Union could avoid being held up by another referendum if it gets strong support in parliament next week, according to Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann. A clear result in a final vote on Dec. 16 with the Swiss People’s Party, or SVP, in the minority could make it “delicate” for the group to push for another plebiscite, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Guy...

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Richemont cuts send shockwaves from Geneva to mountain valleys

2016-12-08

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2016-12-08

Exports of Swiss Watches Decline for 16th Month
Richemont’s plan to slash 210 watchmaking jobs in Switzerland is sending shockwaves from Geneva to some of the country’s remote mountain villages, the cradle of high-end watch manufacturing. In Le Sentier, a town perched in the middle of the Jura mountain range, straddling the border between France and Switzerland, some 400 people protested Thursday against plans to cut the workforce of Vacheron Constantin and Piaget.

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Over 4,000 studios for rent. Standing room only. Telephone included.

2016-12-07

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2016-12-07

Swiss phone box
The contractural requirement for Swisscom to provide every commune with a telephone box comes to an end at the end of next year. Late last week, the Federal Council adopted a new plan that will come into force in 2018. Internet subscriptions without a fixed phone contract should also be part of the new plan.

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