Tag Archive: Swiss National Bank

Nigeria Currency Devaluation Looms As FX Forwards Crash To Record Lows

2016-05-25

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2016-05-25

Despite US equity investors' exuberance over bouncing crude oil prices, the world's crude producers continue to suffer and while Venezuela is in the headlines every day (having already collapsed into chaos), Nigeria appears the nearest to that abyss ...

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Three unintended consequences of NIRP

2016-05-24

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2016-05-24

Central bankers use low or negative interest rates so that it leads to more investment. For them interest rates are a consequence of the currently very low inflation rates. Patrick Watson argues differently: Falling prices are a consequence of low interest rates.

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Apple Jumps After Berkshire Reveals 9.8 Million Share Stake

2016-05-17

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2016-05-17

After three consecutive weeks of seemingly relentless bad news for Apple, moments ago the stock jumped by $2 dollars, rising from $90.5 to over $92.50. Some hope for the Swiss National Bank or will Berkshire shares sink together with Apple and the SNB?

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As Carl Icahn Was Selling Apple, This Central Bank Was Furiously Buying

2016-05-14

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2016-05-14

We hope for the sake of Swiss residents that equity markets never suffer a dramatic drop. The SNB has “invested” 20% of Swiss GDP in stocks. When will the ivory tower economists ultimately lose control of the most manipulated, centrally-planned market in history?

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St. Louis Fed Slams Draghi, Kuroda – “Negative Rates Are Taxes In Sheep’s Clothing”

2016-05-09

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2016-05-09

"At the end of the day, negative interest rates are taxes in sheep’s clothing. Few economists would ever claim that raising taxes on households will stimulate spending. So why would they think negative interest rates will?" Those are the shocking wor...

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Gold, Bonds and Negative Interest Rates Give SNB a Q1 profit

2016-04-28

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2016-04-28

2016 Q1 Results Swiss National Bank
SNB Results Q1 2016: Two thirds of SNB profit comes from Gold. Deflation helps with higher bonds prices and profit on negative interest rates.

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Swiss National Bank: Composition of Reserves (Assets) and Investment Strategy

The Q1/2016 update on the SNB investment strategy and its assets. The Swiss National Bank is a passive conservative investor. As opposed to other investors, the exposure in currencies is as important as the strategic asset allocation according asset classes (bonds, equities, cash, real estate). The importance of currencies is one reason why the SNB is often called a hedge fund, the second the volatility of gains and losses.

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With Tech Tanking, Can Anything Save The System?

2016-04-27

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2016-04-27

Submitted by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com, First it was the banks reporting horrendous numbers — largely, we were told, because of their exposure to recently-cratered energy companies. Now it’s Big Tech, which is a much harder thing t...

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Wall Street and SNB In Pain: 163 Hedge Funds Are Long AAPL Stock

2016-04-26

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2016-04-26

First it was the blow up of hedge fund darling Valeant that crushed countless funds who were long the name. Then, one month ago after the collapse of the Allergan-Pfizer deal, we showed (one of the reasons) why the hedge fund world continued to unde...

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A Take On How Negative Interest Rates Hurt Banks That You Will Not See Anywhere Else

2016-04-14

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2016-04-14

The Bank of Japan and the ECB are assisting me in teaching the world's savers, banking clients and corporations about the benefits of blockchain-based finance for the masses. How? Today, the Wall Street Journal published "Negative Rates: How One Swis...

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ZIRP, NIRP, QE, Bank Collapse and Helicopters Coming Too Late – The Lehman Effect Hits Europe – Hard!

2016-04-11

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2016-04-11

It's official, I'm calling a banking crisis in Europe. Things didn't go well the last time I did this. Of course, many will say, "But the rating agencies have learned their collective lessons. They would most assuredely warn us if the European banks...

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History of Bank of Japan Interventions

We show the history of Japanese FX interventions. The Japanese only intervened when the USD/JPY was under 80. Therefore the 2016 FX intervention threads at 108 are ridiculous. As opposed to the Swiss National Bank, the Japanese only talk, they do not fight.

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Big Players (Read: Governments) Make Markets Unsafe

2016-04-07

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2016-04-07

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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The SNB and the Forex Rigging Irony

While Forex banks, traders, and other institutions are being blamed for market rigging, the Swiss National Bank can publish reports about its own market rigging, but instead of being a scandal, it's economic data.  That's because the vast majority do...

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Swiss National Bank Admits It Spent $470 Billion On Currency Manipulation Since 2010

2016-03-24

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2016-03-24

By now it is common knowledge that when it comes to massive, taxpayer-backed hedge funds, few are quite as big as the Swiss National Bank, whose roughly $100 billion in equity holdings have been extensively profiled on these pages, including its woef...

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How Venezuela Exported 12.5 Tonnes Of Gold To Switzerland On March 8

2016-03-19

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2016-03-19

Submitted by Ronan Manly of Bullionstar Blogs Following on from last month in which BullionStar’s Koos Jansen broke the news that Venezuela had sent almost 36 tonnes of its gold reserves to Switzerland at the beginning of the year, “Venezuela Exporte...

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Another Fed “Policy Error”? Dollar And Yields Tumble, Stocks Slide, Gold Jumps

2016-03-17

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2016-03-17

Yesterday when summarizing the Fed's action we said that in its latest dovish announcement which has sent the USD to a five month low, the Fed clearly sided with China which desperately wants a weaker dollar to which it is pegged (reflected promptly ...

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Central Bank Independence in Switzerland: A Farce

articles by Marc Meyer, one of the most critical voices against the SNB. This post explains --- That the SNB does not understand what assets and liabilities are - and therefore - it speculates with massive leverage. --- The difference between good and bad deflation --- Both the SNB and the Swiss government do what some Swiss exporters want. Therefore, the formerly admired central bank independence in Switzerland has become a farce.

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FX Daily 03/14: Five Central Banks Meet as Monetary Policy is Downgraded

2016-03-13

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2016-03-13

Fixed exchange rates limit the degrees of freedom for policymakers.  The breakdown of Bretton Woods in 1971 removed this constraint on official action, and the results were larger budget deficit and higher inflation.  The zero bound on interest rates also posed a constraint on behavior. Until this year, despite the long struggle against deflation, the Bank …

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Swiss National Bank Results 2015 and Comments

2016-03-07

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2016-03-07

SNB Results Longterm 2015
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is reporting a loss of CHF 23.3 billion for the year 2015 (2014: profit of CHF 38.3 billion). The loss on foreign currency positions amounted to CHF 19.9 billion. A valuation loss of CHF 4.2 billion was recorded on gold holdings. The profit on Swiss franc positions was CHF 1.2 billion.

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