Tag Archive: Swiss National Bank

Risk Happens Fast

2016-10-31

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2016-10-31

As a teenager brimming with testosterone my reptilian brain loved action movies. Top of my list were Steven Seagal movies. Clearly it wasn't for his acting skills, which are only marginally better than Barney the dinosaur. What I loved about Seagal was that he was both deadly and terribly fast.

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Jim Grant Puzzled by the actions of the SNB

2016-10-27

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2016-10-27

James Grant, Wall Street expert and editor of the investment newsletter «Grant’s Interest Rate Observer», warns of a crash in sovereign debt, is puzzled over the actions of the Swiss National Bank and bets on gold.

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Global stocks at lowest levels since July

2016-10-14

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2016-10-14

The Swiss Market Index is set to finish the week lower, but outperforming global stocks, thanks to a strong week of luxury good stocks. Global stocks fell to their lowest levels since July on Thursday as investors rushed to the safety of government bonds, yen and gold after renewed concerns over weakness in the Chinese economy and as the Federal Reserve considers raising interest rates.

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Switzerland’s central bank offers a glimpse behind the curtain

2016-10-07

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2016-10-07

SNB Behind the Curtains Thomas Jordan
The Swiss National Bank is offering a rare look into how it sets monetary policy. A video of SNB President Thomas Jordan and fellow members of the governing board shows them beginning their quarterly policy assessment discussing the state of the economy with about 30 people.

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Algos, Barriers, Rumors: Some Theories On What Caused The Pound Flash Crash

2016-10-07

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2016-10-07

As reported moments ago, just around 7:07pm ET, cable snapped and plunged by what some say may have been as much as 1200 pips, dropping from 1.26 to as low as 1.14 according to some brokers, before snapping back up.

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Is Someone Trying To Buy The Swiss National Bank?

2016-10-06

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2016-10-06

By now it is well-known that as we profiled previously, one of the most ravenous buyers of US stocks in recent years, has been a central bank: the Swiss National Bank... However, it is far less known that not only is the Swiss National Bank also a publicly traded stock, but is also one of the best performing stocks in the world this year.

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Janet Yellen’s Shame

2016-09-18

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2016-09-18

wallet
n honest capitalism, you do what you can to get other people to voluntarily give you money. This usually involves providing goods or services they think are worth the price. You may get a little wild and crazy from time to time, but you are always called to order by your customers.

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Seven years of inaction on SNB rates day won’t end this week

2016-09-14

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2016-09-14

Anyone feeling let down that the European Central Bank didn’t do much last week might just want to skip the Swiss rate decision on Thursday to avoid more disappointment. While the Swiss National Bank may be infamous for some seismic policy changes in the last few years, those bombshells weren’t dropped at scheduled meetings. In fact, the last time the institution altered interest rates at a decision in its public calendar was more than seven years...

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Strong Swiss growth lessens chance SNB will act

2016-09-13

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2016-09-13

Swiss real GDP growth data surprised on the upside in Q2, expanding by 0.6% q-o-q (and 2.5% q-o-q annualised). In addition, growth in the three previous quarters was revised significantly higher. As a result, our GDP growth forecast for growth in Switzerland rises mechanically from 0.9% to 1.5% for 2016.

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Attack The Fed’s War On Savers, Workers And The Unborn (Taxpayers)

2016-09-13

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2016-09-13

The central banks have gone so far off the deep-end with financial price manipulation that it is only a matter of time before some astute politician comes after them with all barrels blasting. As a matter of fact, that appears to be exactly what Donald Trump unloaded on bubble vision this morning:

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Negative and the War On Cash, Part 2: “Closing The Escape Routes”

2016-09-08

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2016-09-08

History teaches us that central authorities dislike escape routes, at least for the majority, and are therefore prone to closing them, so that control of a limited money supply can remain in the hands of the very few. In the 1930s, gold was the escape route, so gold was confiscated. As Alan Greenspan wrote in 1966:

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SNB Balance Sheet Now Over 100 percent GDP

Since 2008 the balance sheet of the Swiss National Bank has risen from 28% to 102% of Swiss GDP. Balance sheets of other central banks have strongly risen, too. But there is one big difference: The risk for the SNB is far higher, the SNB nearly exclusively possesses assets denominated in volatile foreign currency.

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Interim results of the Swiss National Bank as at 30 June 2016

2016-08-25

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2016-08-25

Income statement, 1 January–30 June 2016
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) reports a profit of CHF 21.3 billion for the first half of 2016. A valuation gain of CHF 7.6 billion was recorded on gold holdings. The profit on foreign currency positions amounted to CHF 13.0 billion.

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Two More Banks Start Charging Select Clients For Holding Cash

2016-08-19

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2016-08-19

Bank of Ireland, which is 14% owned by the State, has informed its large corporate and institutional customers that it plans to charge them a negative rate of -0.1% for deposits of €10 million or more starting in October.

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Swiss National Bank’s U.S. equity holdings hit record $61.8 billion last quarter

2016-08-03

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2016-08-03

The value of the Swiss National Bank’s U.S. stock portfolio jumped to a record in June, helped by equity market gains. The holdings climbed to $61.8 billion from $54.5 billion at the end of March, according to calculations by Bloomberg based on the central bank’s regulatory filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and published on Wednesday.

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Spiritus rector des kranken Bonussystems ist Oswald Grübel

2016-07-13

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2016-07-13

97 Franken – das war der Kurs der CS-Aktie im Mai 2007. Vergangene Woche notierte die Aktie noch bei einem Zehntel. Bei einem solch dramatischen Kurszerfall muss die CS sich nicht wundern, wenn kritische Fragen gestellt werden. Weshalb beträgt der aktuelle Wert der CS-Titel nur noch rund die Hälfte des in der Bilanz ausgewiesenen? Besteht die Gefahr eines Konkurses der CS? Wer wird dieses Too Big To Fail-Institut allenfalls retten? Die SNB, der...

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In Surprising Development NIRP Starts To Work, Pushing Rich Swiss Savers Out Of Cash Into Stocks

2016-06-23

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2016-06-23

One of the rising laments against NIRP is that far from forcing savers to shift from cash and buy risky (or less risky) assets, it has done the opposite. Intuitively this makes sense: savers expecting a return on the cash they have saved over the years are forced to save even more in a world of ZIRP or NIRP, as instead of living off the interest, they have to build up even more prinicpal.

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Central Banks & Governments and their gold coin holdings

2016-06-13

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2016-06-13

While this is true in some cases, it is not the fully story because many central banks and governments, such as the US, France, Italy, Switzerland, the UK and Venezuela, all hold an element of gold bullion coins as part of their official monetary gold reserves.

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FX Weekly Preview: Four Central Bank Meetings and More

2016-06-12

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2016-06-12

A couple of weeks ago, the four central banks that meet in the coming days were thought to be a big deal.  Numerous Federal Reserve officials were preparing the market for a summer hike. Risks of a new downturn in Japan spurred spe...

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Swiss Reserves: Not what They Seem

2016-06-08

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2016-06-08

SNB Currency Allocation 2016
This posts shows again the stupidity of the financial media, that mixes up assets and liabilities for central banks. SNB FX reserves are assets. They are in different foreign currencies and subject to the valuation effect of these currencies.

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