Tag Archive: newsletter

FX Daily, January 22: Dollar Consolidates and Equity Rally Stalls

2019-01-22

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2019-01-22

The US dollar is firmer against most major and emerging market currencies. The yen is a notable exception, and it is firmer, but well within recent ranges. The dollar-bloc currencies and the Norwegian krona are the weakest of the majors as a setback in equities and oil reflects a diminished risk appetite.

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Switzerland has second-most part-time workers in Europe

2019-01-22

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2019-01-22

Part-time work in Switzerland continues to increase, with the latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office showing that over a third of employees work less than 90%. The figures, said the statistical office on Thursdayexternal link, show a marked increase in part-time work over the past 20 years: from 26.3% to 36.7%.

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Want to Heal the Internet? Ban All Collection of User Data

2019-01-22

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2019-01-22

Internet Usage Growth Solid, 2008 - 2015
The social media/search giants have mastered the dark arts of obfuscating how they're reaping billions of dollars in profits from monetizing user data, and lobbying technologically naive politicos to leave their vast skimming operations untouched.

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Xapo shifting services from Hong Kong to Switzerland

2019-01-22

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2019-01-22

Bitcoin services provider Xapo is winding down activities at its Hong Kong base and transferring key operations to Switzerland. Xapo president Ted Rogers said the move has been driven by Switzerland’s friendlier regulatory environment. “It was once thought that Hong Kong was the holy grail of crypto regulations,” Rogers told swissinfo.ch at the World Web Forum in Zurich. “But it has become more opaque.”

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FX Daily, January 21: Chinese Data and UK Brexit Start New Week

2019-01-21

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2019-01-21

Overview: Mixed data from China and the anticipation of Prime Minister May's "Plan B" are the main talking points, while US stock and bond markets are closed today.  Asia Pacific equities were higher, while European markets have failed to follow suit.  Benchmark 10-year bond yields are mostly softer, with the on-the-run Japanese Government Bond yield dipping back into negative territory.

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FX Weekly Preview: Things to Watch in the Week Ahead

2019-01-21

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2019-01-21

"The sky is falling. The sky is falling," they cried, as equities plunged in December. It is signaling a recession, we were told. Instead, global equities have begun the year with a strong advance. The S&P 500 gapped higher ahead of the weekend, extending this year's rally to about 14%.

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European Central Bank likely to stick to script

2019-01-21

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2019-01-21

Falling ECB Market Rate Hike expectations 2018-2019
The ECB is comfortable with current market expectations for rate hikes.At its latest meeting in December, the ECB turned more cautious, lowering its growth forecasts but showing no sign of panic regarding the loss in euro area economic momentum. Risks were considered as “broadly balanced”, but moving to the downside.

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Swiss firms in record number of mergers and acquisitions

2019-01-21

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2019-01-21

The number of merger and acquisition deals involving Swiss companies hit a record high in 2018, according to a report by consultancy firm KPMG. Activity peaked in a number of sectors including financial services, consumer markets, technology, media and telecommunications, power and utilities, says KPMG. There were also a record number of private equity transactions.

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Two Ways the System Is Rigged: HFT and Oligarchic Inheritance

2019-01-21

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2019-01-21

Soaring Income Inequality
We often hear how the system (i.e. our economy) is rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many, but exactly how is it rigged? Longtime correspondent Zeus Y. recently highlighted two specific mechanisms that favor the top 0.01%: high frequency trading (HFT) and oligarchic inheritance, the generational transfer of immense wealth and the power it buys.

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L’enfer fiscal peut être suisse… Si si!

2019-01-20

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2019-01-20

Le scandale de la valeur locative, un revenu fictif taxé. Je profite du billet de G Monti pour introduire un thème qui, à lui seul résume ce que peut être l’injustice fiscale. Il s’agit de ce qui est appelée en Suisse la valeur locative de son logement. Il ne faut pas le confondre avec un impôt foncier, ni avec un loyer.

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Hall of Mirrors, Where’d The Labor Shortage Go?

2019-01-20

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2019-01-20

Federal Reserve Beige Book 2010-2019
Today was supposed to see the release of the Census Bureau’s retail trade report, a key data set pertaining to the (alarming) state of American consumers, therefore workers by extension (income). With the federal government in partial shutdown, those numbers will be delayed until further notice. In their place we will have to manage with something like the Federal Reserves’ Beige Book.

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Workers paid in euros may not claim for currency losses

2019-01-19

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2019-01-19

The Swiss Federal Court has ruled that two Swiss companies do not have to compensate two employees who were paid in euros and who ended up with less than their franc-earning colleagues. Explaining its decision on Tuesday, the country’s highest court said the cross-border workers from Germany and France had agreed to a corresponding change to their contracts in 2011 – knowing what it meant for their salaries – and therefore any subsequent demands...

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That’s A Big Minus

2019-01-19

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2019-01-19

Europe Industrial Production 2013-2018
Goods require money to finance both their production as well as their movements. They need oil and energy for the same reasons. If oil and money markets were drastically awful for a few months before December, and then purely chaotic during December, Mario Draghi of all people should’ve been paying attention.

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Political Turmoil in UK & US Sees Gold Hit 2 Week High

2019-01-19

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2019-01-19

For first time in over 16 years, palladium futures settle at a premium to gold futures. Gold futures on Wednesday resumed their climb toward the psychologically important price of $1,300 an ounce, settling at their highest in nearly two weeks on the back of political turmoil in the U.K. and U.S.

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Swiss Producer and Import Price Index in December 2018: +0.6 percent YoY, -0.6 percent MoM

2019-01-18

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2019-01-18

Switzerland Producer Price Index (PPI) YoY, December 2018
18.01.2019 - The Producer and Import Price Index fell in December 2018 by 0.6% compared with the previous month, reaching 102.5 points (December 2015 = 100). Compared with December 2017, the price level of the whole range of domestic and imported products rose by 0.6%. The average annualised inflation rate in 2018 was 2.4%.

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FX Daily, January 18: Markets Finishing Week on Positive Note

2019-01-18

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2019-01-18

Sentiment has improved since the volatility last month spooked investors and, perhaps, some policymakers. Global equities are rallying. The Shanghai Composite and the Nikkei are at their best levels in almost a month, while the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is at its best level since early December, gapping above a downtrend in place since late last September.

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Swiss and Italian leaders discuss cross-border tax deal

2019-01-18

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2019-01-18

By spring, the Italian government is expected to clarify its position on a new tax system for cross-border commuters between Italy and Switzerland. “It is a delicate issue that must be digested sufficiently, with both administrative and political evaluations. It takes time, but spring is not far away,” Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi told Swiss Foreign Affairs Minister Ignazio Cassis in Lugano in southern Switzerland on...

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Spreading Sour Not Soar

2019-01-18

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2019-01-18

Sweden / Japan
We are starting to get a better sense of what happened to turn everything so drastically in December. Not that we hadn’t suspected while it was all taking place, but more and more in January the economic data for the last couple months of 2018 backs up the market action. These were no speculators looking to break Jay Powell, probing for weakness in Mario Draghi’s resolve.

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The Strongest Season for Silver Has Only Just Begun

2019-01-18

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2019-01-18

Silver price in terms of the USD
Commodities as an Alternative. Our readers are presumably following commodity prices. Commodities often provide an alternative to investing in stocks – and they have clearly discernible seasonal characteristics. Thus heating oil tends to be cheaper in the summer than during the heating season in winter, and wheat is typically more expensive before the harvest then thereafter.

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FX Daily, January 17: Risk Assets Underperform as Investors Await Fresh Developments

2019-01-17

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2019-01-17

The capital markets remain relatively subdued as fresh trading incentives are awaited, including US corporate earnings. Some of the enthusiasm for risk-assets has diminished. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index has stalled after trading at six-week highs yesterday, though most bourses in Asia were higher, but the Nikkei (Topix gained), China, and Singapore.

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