Tag Archive: newsletterNotSent

Weekly Speculative Positions (as of April 25): Bulls Take Charge of 10-year Note Futures, while Sterling Bears Hang On

The net short CHF position has risen to 17K contracts (against USD). The striking development among speculators in the futures market is the reversal of the record gross (and net) short Treasury note position two months ago.

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Denmark Peg Under Pressure, but Won’t be Abandoned

In the first quarter, there was some speculation that currency pegs either in the Middle East or Hong Kong were going to give way.  We argued that the pegs would in fact hold, and hold they have.  In fact, pressure on the Saudi and Hong Kong pegs have dissipated.  Since the end of last month, … Continue reading »

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FX Daily: Yen Pares Gains, Dollar-Bloc Firms

The surging yen has been the main feature in the foreign exchange market in recent days, but its advancing streak has been stopped with today's setback.  The greenback traded briefly dipped below JPY107.70 in North America yesterday but has not ...

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Swiss Consumer Price Index in March 2016: -0.9 percent against 2015, +0.3 percent against last month

08.04.2016 09:15  - FSO, Prices (0353-1603-50) Swiss Consumer Price Index in March 2016 Neuchâtel, 08.04.2016 (FSO) – The Swiss Consumer Price Index increased by 0.3% in March 2016 compared with the previous month, reaching 100.1 points (December 201...

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Big Players (Read: Governments) Make Markets Unsafe

Authored by Steve H. Hanke of the Johns Hopkins University. Follow him on Twitter @Steve_Hanke. Reportage in The Wall Street Journal on April 4th states that “A fund owned by China’s foreign-exchange regulator has been taking stakes in some of the co...

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FX Daily, April 7: Yen Continues to Climb

The main feature in the foreign exchange market continues to be the surge of the Japanese yen.  A convincing explanation of the yen's strength seems elusive.  Until last week, which means through the fiscal year-end last month, Japanese fund managers have been buying foreign bonds at a near-record pace.  Foreign investors, for their part, have …

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FX Daily, April 6: Greenback Finds A Little Traction

The US dollar is better bid today but remains largely in the ranges seen in recent days.  There a few developments to note, which together are lifting European equities after Asian equities softened.   First, the API oil inventory estimate showed an unexpected fall of 4.3 mln barrels.  An increase of half the magnitude was expected.  The …

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March 2016: Highest SNB Interventions since January 2015

Speculative position: Strong shift to CHF long: +4967x 125K contracts after the Fed reduced their expectations of rate hikes for this year. …………Sight Deposits: SNB intervenes for 6.1 bln. CHF during the month of March. This is the higest level since January 2016. ……….FX: EUR/CHF steady slightly over 1.09. As I expected last week, the EUR/CHF …

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10 years of Swiss Social Assistance Statistics: Social assistance rate the same as 10 years ago

04.04.2016 11:00  - FSO, Social Assistance (0353-1603-30) 10 years of Swiss Social Assistance Statistics Neuchâtel, 04.04.2016 (BFS) – The Swiss Social Assistance Statistics cover ten years of observation with the latest data from 2014. The social as...

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February Swiss Retail Sales -0.3percent YoY(Real), Core Retail Sales +0.3percent

01.04.2016 09:15  - FSO, Economic Surveys (0353-1603-20) Retail trade turnover in February 2016 Neuchâtel, 01.04.2016 (FSO) – Turnover in the retail sector fell by 0.9% in nominal terms in February 2016 compared with the previous year. Seasonally adj...

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The Voldemort Effect: Gold Price and Gold Sales

Gold market analysts have for many years puzzled over the unusual behaviour of the gold market during the 1990s, specifically the bizarrely flat gold price from 1993 to 1996 in the face of sustained selling pressure from central banks and gold miners...

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Labour costs 2014: Labour costs in Switzerland: marked differences according to enterprise size

22.03.2016 09:15  - FSO, Economic Surveys (0353-1601-50) Labour costs 2014 Neuchâtel, 22.03.2016 (FSO) – In 2014, average labour costs in Switzerland amounted to CHF 59.60 per hour worked across the secondary and tertiary sectors. According to the Fe...

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Assisted reproductive technology in 2014: definitive data: Uptake of in-vitro fertilisation on the rise again

22.03.2016 09:15  - FSO, Health (0353-1603-60) Assisted reproductive technology in 2014: definitive data Neuchâtel, 22.03.2016 (FSO) – In 2014, 6269 couples wishing to have children turned to in-vitro fertilisation. This resulted in the birth of 1955...

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Swiss Producer and Import Prices Index February 2016: 0.6 percent MoM, 4.6 percent YoY

17.03.2016 09:15  - FSO, Prices (0353-1602-50) Producer and Import Price Index in February 2016 Neuchâtel, 17.03.2016 (FSO) – The Producer and Import Price Index fell in February 2016 by 0.6% compared with the previous month, reaching 99.0 points (ba...

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