Switzerland

2020 brings with it the 10th year of recovery since the global financial crisis. Equity markets continue to break records, ample credit is available, yet the bullish performance appears cosmetic at times and investing in Europe in 2020 is fraught with political risks.  The US deficit doubled from $385bn to $779bn last year, the UK […]

“As the howls of anguish at negative interest rates reach a crescendo, central bankers and prominent economists are still convinced that Europe’s financial sector would be even worse off were base rates above zero.” – by Dominic O’Neill

“In the looking-glass world of negative-interest rates, the Swiss are in a special category.” – by Stephen Mihm

“With the ECB set to cut rates, the Swiss will have little choice but to go even deeper into negative territory. The SNB is a price-taker, not a price-maker.” – by Marcus Ashworth

“Despite the European macroeconomic picture being “muted” for the past two years, last year saw record activity in most alternative asset classes.  European alternative asset fund managers held €1.62 trillion ($1.82 trillion) in assets as of June 2018, up €300 billion in three years” – by Michael Katz

Investor trepidation towards Europe in today’s markets is understandable.  Regional macro data remain anemic.  Europe continues to produce weak data, Euro-Area economic sentiment saw its worst losing streak in a decade and low interest rates are set to continue throughout the medium term.  Meanwhile, the Fed has raised rates nine times since December 2015, taking […]

Leclanché announces debt-to-equity swap converting CHF 24 million of debt into equity issued to major shareholder FEFAM