Swiss Franc
Entering the Summer Season of Currency Trading
May 25, 2012
The summer season for currency market participants, which lies between the U.S. Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, has a wholly different feeling from the winter/spring or autumn trimesters. Because of the comings and goings of vacationing dealers, summer volume tends to be more volatile, depriving the marketplace of the depth, breadth and resiliency found […] More
Dangerous to do Business
May 11, 2012
Risk aversion is back in vogue. One saw this in equities more quickly than in foreign exchange. Investors can think of many reasons to be averse. The May 6th elections in Europe improved the probability of Greece leaving the common currency bloc in 2012. Four years and 10 months after the onset of the global […] More
Currency World at First Quarter-end 2012
March 30, 2012
From a government perspective, chronic currency appreciation is undesirable. In the quarter now ending, officials in Japan, China, and Switzerland did their utmost to keep a lid on the yen, yuan, and franc. A drop in the yen of more than 6% against the dollar helped lift Japan’s Nikkei-225 by 19.3% in the quarter, some […] More
Euroland Needs Further Euro Depreciation
January 13, 2012
The euro area is in a recession that European Central Bank officials think and hope will prove much milder than the last one. However, growth risks are skewed substantially to the downside, and all other parts of the world are enjoying positive growth. It is natural in light of this contrast for the euro to […] More
Opening Currency Market Act of 2012
January 5, 2012
The dollar started 2012 on a high note just as it did in the first week of three of the past five years. Between yearend and January 7, the dollar appreciated against the euro by 3.6% in 2011, 2.5% in 2009 and 1.4% in 2007. It was unchanged in the first week of 2010 and […] More
Anxiety Attack over Greek Debt Slams Equities
September 19, 2011
Weekend developments from Europe were worrisome. More street protests in Athens. Euro leaders still haggling over terms of their July 21 aid agreement to Greece. Greek PM Papandreou cancels planned trip to United States and U.N. Teleconference scheduled today for EU troika and Greek finance minister. Next tranche of Greek aid from IMF and EU […] More
Greek Default Concerns
September 12, 2011
European and Asian markets experienced another extremely difficult session overnight, the focus of which was mounting speculation that aid to Greece will be halted and that Greece will then default and leave the euro zone, if not the EU. The euro got whacked, falling to its lowest yen value (JPY 103.89) since June 14, 2001 […] More
Continuing Retreat of Swiss Franc
August 15, 2011
A press report that the Swiss National Bank is seeking permission from the government for it to impose a CHF/EUR ceiling generated further depreciation in the franc, which at overnight lows of 0.8000 per dollar and 1.1460 per euro was 11.7% and 12.1% below last Tuesday’s highs. Share prices in Asia and Europe overnight were […] More
Swiss Franc Retreats Further
August 12, 2011
In the face of a multi-pronged official attack on its strength, the Swissy continued to weaken overnight, touching 1.1050 per euro, 8.9% below Tuesday’s peak of 1.0071. The short selling came in the face of negative Swiss interest rates and rumors that ECB and SNB officials aim to peg the CHF/EUR relationship near 1.15. The […] More
Dollar Looking to Stocks for Direction
August 11, 2011
The Swiss franc fell back 1.9% against the dollar and has lost 4.6% since its record peak on Tuesday. The yen, in contrast, rose 0.4% and got within six pips of this year’s 76.25 record high. The dollar dropped 0.4% against the Chinese yuan, which reached a record high of 6.3895 per dollar in overnight […] More
