Tag Archive: Featured

Accusing the Accused of Excusing the Mountain of Evidence

Why not let the accused also sit in the jury box? The answer seems rather obvious. While maybe the truly honest man accused of a crime he did commit would vote for his own conviction, the world seems a bit short on supply of those while long and deep offering up practitioners of pure sophistry in their stead.

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Fed and ECB Money Printing Helps SNB Back into Positive Territory

Fed and ECB money printing and massive fiscal stimulus help the SNB to come back into positive territory for the year. The renewed asset price inflation compensate for losses on the US dollar.

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FX Daily, August 3: Stronger EMU PMIs Fail to Recharge the Euro’s Upside Momentum

Overview: The capital markets are decidedly mixed today as investors are pulled between rising infections, heightened tensions between the US and China, lack of progress on new US stimulus, and technical forces as the new month begins.

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EM Preview for the Week Ahead

EM currencies took advantage of broad dollar weakness against the majors last week, with most gaining against the greenback. Yet the week ended on a bit of a risk-off note as concerns intensified about the resurgent virus and the impact on the still-weak global economy.

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Swiss Retail Sales, June 2020: 0.4 percent Nominal and 1.1 percent Real

Turnover adjusted for sales days and holidays rose in the retail sector by 0.4% in nominal terms in June 2020 compared with the previous year. Seasonally adjusted, nominal turnover fell by 3.6% compared with the previous month.

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How Swiss staycationers are scouting out your next alpine getaway

Let’s dispose of the bad news right from the start. If you’re reading this and don’t live in Europe, chances are you’re not going to make it to Switzerland this year. Now for the good news. 

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A Vaccine May Not Be the “Magical Cure” Everyone Anticipates

Few appear willing to follow the probabilities of a future in which a vaccine cannot possibly be the "magic cure" everyone wants. Let's attempt the impossible and set aside all preconceptions we might have about a vaccine for Covid-19, and think it through somewhat dispassionately.

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Short Term Weakness Likely Prior To A “Massive Short Squeeze Propels” Gold and Silver “To Much Higher Levels” – GoldCore

Gold and silver are set for a 5% and 6% gain this week and a significant 11% and 30% gain in the month of July.

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A blueprint for a European superstate

After intense negotiations, long days and nights of clashes and a distinctly sour note underlying the entire summit, European Union leaders finally agreed on an unprecedented 1.82 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) budget and COVID recovery package.

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Memo from Insiders: Dear Bagholders, Thanks for Buying Our Shares at the Top

The self-sustaining recovery is a fantasy that's evaporated.What looks like a powerful, can't-lose rally to newbies is recognized as distribution by old hands. In low-volume markets (as in the past few months), insiders holding large positions can't dump all their shares at once or the price of the stock would plummet due to the thinness of the bid.

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Silver “Scarcifies” – Precious Metals Supply and Demand

The action on 27 July was not. Notice the big drop in the basis starting around midnight (London time). It falls from over 7% to under 2%.

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That’s Probably Why Only Half a “V”

Why only half a “V?” If the latest PMI’s are anywhere close to accurate, and they don’t have to be all that close, then the production side of the economy may have stalled out somewhere nearer the trough of this contraction. The promise of May’s big payroll report surprise has dissipated in more than just the bond market.

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The Government Wants Your Crypto Data. And Lots of It.

The Venezuelan government recently announced that its Administrative Service for Identification, Migration and Foreigners (SAIME) is now accepting bitcoin as a payment method for passports. The problem with that is that bitcoin is not anonymous but pseudonymous.

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FX Daily, July 30: Greenback’s Bounce is Likely Short-Lived

A wave of profit-taking is seen through most of the capital markets today, with the exception of the bond market, where yields continue to trend lower.  The US 10-year is now yielding 55 bp, a new low since early March, and the five-year yield set a new record low near 23 bp.  European yields are 2-4 bp lower.

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Weekly view – The summer grind

All kinds of reasons can be advanced for the tit-for-tat closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston and its US equivalent in Chengdu. These range from a dispute over quarantine requirements for US diplomats returning to China to an attempt by the Trump Administration to distract from troubling virus news and a real threat to American intellectual property and privacy.

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Temporary employee sector hit hard by Covid-19 crisis

The number of hours worked by temporary employees in Switzerland has dropped by about 23% due to the impact of restrictions imposed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Dollar Weak Ahead of Likely Dovish Hold from the Fed

The FOMC decision today is likely to deliver a very dovish tone; the dollar tends to weaken on FOMC decision days. Tensions about the latest US stimulus bill are rising; core bond yields have been remarkably stable over the last several months.

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New Unemployment Increased to 1.4 Million Last Week as Recovery Falters

The rising unemployment comes partly as a result of state governments forcing the closures of some businesses, or restricting operations, in the name of mandatory social distancing.

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Gold Reaches $2,000/oz Prior to Two “Concerted Attacks” In Futures Market

The King Report“Anyone that’s been around the block a few times with gold knows that at some point ‘they’ will stage a concerted effort to drive gold lower.” December gold hit $2,000 at 21:19 ET Monday. It then retreated and traded sideways until 22:50 ET. Then someone slammed gold down to $1,955 in 20 minutes. This is obvious “impact trading.” Gold then traded sideways for over four hours.

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FX Daily, July 29: Greenback Slips Ahead of the FOMC

Global equity markets are stabilizing today, and the dollar is once again on its back foot. Chinese markets led a mixed regional performance with a 2%-3% gain, while South Korea and Hong Kong markets also advancing. The strength of the yen appears to weigh on Japanese shares.

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