Tag Archive: newsletter

Powell: Still Strong; Markets: AYFKM

2018-12-21

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2018-12-21

Global Systematically Important Banks 2017-2018
The official statement that accompanies each every FOMC policy action is by nature bland and sterile. Still, despite the sparseness of printed words those that are included can say a lot. Here’s its essence for what just wrapped up in December 2018: The Committee judges that some further gradual increases in the target range for the federal funds rate will be consistent with sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions,...

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Gold Prices Likely To Go Higher In 2019 After 4 percent Gain So Far In Q4

2018-12-21

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2018-12-21

Traders Make First Bullish Bet on Gold Since July as Stocks Tumble
Gold traders appear excited about gold again as stocks are on pace for their worst year since 2008, and their worst December since 1931. Bullish bets on the yellow metal outnumbered bearish ones for the week ended December 11, resulting in the first instance of net positive contracts since July, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data.

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FX Daily, December 20: Stocks Slump and the Dollar Slides as Market Concludes Fed is Mistaken

2018-12-20

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2018-12-20

Overview:  Once again the US equity market failed to hold on to even minimal upticks.  The sharply lower close spurred follow-through selling in global equities.  Few have been spared the wrath of investors who apparently were disappointed with the Fed and its reluctance to consider stopping the balance sheet unwind. 

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Swiss Trade Balance November 2018: Exports pass for the first time the bar of 19 billion francs

2018-12-20

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2018-12-20

In November 2018, exports confirmed their growth the previous month with a 1.8% increase, posting a new monthly peak. Imports, on the other hand, weakened by 1.2% and remain in a negative spiral. The trade balance closed with a surplus of 3.1 billion francs.

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Apple will fix tech-glitch to benefit TWINT

2018-12-20

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2018-12-20

Switzerland’s Competition Commission announced on Tuesday that Apple has agreed to come up with a more competitive technical solution to the benefit of Swiss payment method TWINT. The automatic activation of Apple Pay at payment terminals can interrupt payments made by the TWINT application, noted the commission.

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Why Everything That Needs to Be Fixed Remains Permanently Broken

2018-12-20

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2018-12-20

Just in case you missed what's going on in France: the status quo in Europe is doomed. The status quo has a simple fix for every crisis and systemic problem: 1. create currency out of thin air. 2. give it to super-wealthy banks, financiers and corporations to boost their wealth and income.

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FX Daily, December 19: The Fed’s Paws may Still Unsettle Investors

2018-12-19

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2018-12-19

Overview:  The failure of the S&P 500 to sustain even modest upside momentum yesterday is keeping traders on edge today, though another attempt on the upside is likely.  Asian equities were mixed, with Chinese and Japanese shares lower.  The Nikkei closed below the 21000 support level. 

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Majority of Swiss company CEOs are foreign

2018-12-19

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2018-12-19

A total of 52% of CEOs from the 50 firms on the SMI Expandedexternal link stock exchange are from abroad, according to a study published on Monday by the recruitment consultancy Heidrick & Strugglesexternal link. A year ago, when the profiles of Swiss executives were evaluated for the first time, the figure was 49%.

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Industrial Fading

2018-12-19

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2018-12-19

Federal Reserve Empire State Manu. Index 2001-2018
It is time to start paying attention to PMI’s again, some of them. There are those like the ISM’s Manufacturing Index which remains off in a world of its own. The version of the goods economy suggested by this one index is very different than almost every other. It skyrocketed in late summer last year way out of line (highest in more than a decade) with any other economic account.

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Why Do Investors Tolerate It, Report 17 Dec 2018

2018-12-18

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2018-12-18

Gold and Silver Prices
For the first time since we began publishing this Report, it is a day late. We apologize. Keith has just returned Saturday from two months on the road. Unlike the rest of the world, we define inflation as monetary counterfeiting. We do not put the emphasis on quantity (and the dollar is not money, it’s a currency). We focus on the quality. An awful lot of our monetary counterfeiting occurs to fuel consumption spending.

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FX Daily, December 18: Stock Rout Deepens, Casts Shadow over Holiday Spirit

2018-12-18

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2018-12-18

Overview: The 2% slide in the S&P 500 to new lows for the year yesterday hit Asian and European equities today. Bond yields are lower, and the dollar is softer against most major currencies. The dramatic equity losses and some disappointing data sparked doubts about the ability of the Fed to raise rates tomorrow at the conclusion of its last meeting of the year.

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Pension fund statistics 2017: definitive results

2018-12-18

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2018-12-18

The pension funds can look back on a positive year of investment: net income from investments doubled in 2017, strengthening the reserves and reducing any underfunding. These are some of the final results from the Federal Statistical Office’s 2017 pension fund statistics. You will find further information such as tables and graphs in the PDF below.

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UK signs air service deal with Switzerland for post-Brexit flights

2018-12-18

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2018-12-18

British Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling is set to sign an agreement with Switzerland on Monday to ensure air services continue to operate between the two countries after Brexit. Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29, but uncertainty over how, or even if, Brexit will happen has increased the possibility of the country exiting without a deal on departure terms, a scenario that some companies said would usher in chaos.

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The Relevant Word Is ‘Decline’

2018-12-18

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2018-12-18

China Industrial Production, Nov 1998 - 2018
The English language headline for China’s National Bureau of Statistics’ press release on November 2018’s Big 3 was, National Economy Maintained Stable and Sound Momentum of Development in November. For those who, as noted yesterday, are wishing China’s economy bad news so as to lead to the supposed good news of a coordinated “stimulus” response this was itself a bad news/good news situation.

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FX Daily, December 17: Markets Quiet to Start Fed Week

2018-12-17

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2018-12-17

Activity in the global capital markets is subdued as investors move to the sidelines as the year-end approaches. The Federal Reserve headlines the holiday week that also features a Bank of England a Bank of Japan meeting. Only the Fed is expected to change rates.

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FX Weekly Preview: FOMC Dominates Week Ahead Calendar

2018-12-17

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2018-12-17

The last FOMC meeting of 2018 is at hand. After hiking rates three times in 2017, the Fed signaled that four hikes were likely this year and with a widely expected move on December 20, it would have fully delivered, though many steps along the way, skeptical investors had to be led by the nose, as it were, to minimize the element of surprise.

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Swiss prepare to fight age discrimination

2018-12-17

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2018-12-17

A people's initiative, allowing workers over 50 to sue for age discrimination, will be launched soon, the NZZ am Sonntag reported on Sunday. According to Heidi Joos, the CEO of Avenir 50 plus, one of the organisations behind the project, this proposed constitutional provision should allow employees to sue a company if they believe they have been dismissed for age-related reasons or if their application for employment has not been taken into account...

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“Yellow Vests” and the Downward Mobility of the Middle Class

2018-12-17

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2018-12-17

Capital garners the gains, and labor's share continues eroding. That's the story of the 21st century. The middle class, virtually by definition, is not prepared for downward mobility. A systemic, semi-permanent decline in the standard of living isn't part of the implicit social contract that's been internalized by the middle class virtually everywhere:living standards are only supposed to rise.

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How Faux Capitalism Works in America

2018-12-17

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2018-12-17

The Short Squeeze Tweet
Stars in the Night Sky. The U.S. stock market’s recent zigs and zags have provoked much squawking and screeching.  Wall Street pros, private money managers, and Millennial index fund enthusiasts all find themselves on the wrong side of the market’s swift movements.  Even the best and brightest can’t escape President Trump’s tweet precipitated short squeezes.

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Sometimes Bad News Is Just Right

2018-12-16

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2018-12-16

China Imports 2008-2018
There is some hope among those viewing bad news as good news. In China, where alarms are currently sounding the loudest, next week begins the plenary session for the State Council and its working groups. For several days, Communist authorities will weigh all the relevant factors, as they see them, and will then come up with the broad strokes for economic policy in the coming year (2019).

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