Thanks to the combination of an optimistic reading on the UBS consumption indicator and the increasing likelihood that the Fed will provide additional stimulus to the US economy, the Swissy was able to shine across the boards yesterday. USDCHF had gone as low as .9738, its lowest level in more than two and a half years, before closing the New York trading session at .9766.Man, the Swissy is on fire!
The UBS consumption indicator printed a reading of 1.95 for August, a significant increase from 1.88 figure (revised up from 1.86). This means that consumer spending is trending upwards, which indicates that consumers are becoming more confident in their finances. Since consumer spending accounts for almost 60% of Switzerland’s GDP, the figures mean well for Switzerland’s growth.
For today, the report to keep an eye out for is the KOF leading indicators. Scheduled to publish at 9:00 am GMT, the report is predicted to show a reading of 2.11 for September, up from the previous month’s 2.18. The KOF leading indicators is used to determine where the economy is headed for the next six months. A rising reading indicates that Switzerland’s economy is improving. If this report comes in higher than forecast, we could see USDCHF breakout of its consolidation and hit new lows!
Oops! The franc slipped a bit in the pip charts yesterday when the KOF economic barometer dipped to 2.21 from its 2.22 figure last August. EURCHF ended the day 52 pips higher at 1.3313, while USDCHF inched 5 pips higher when it closed at .9771.
No report is scheduled for today over in the land of the Swiss chocolates, but keep your eyes open for any reports that could greatly affect risk sentiment! I hear that there are lots of red flags about to be paraded today!
I gotta be frank with you, franc. Your performance yesterday was whack! For realz yo! USDCHF recorded only its second rise in the past 10 days after the US boosted its currency with a few positive reports. From its opening price of .9770, the pair dipped to a low of .9710 before it turned up the volume and rose to close at .9827.
The franc had no choice but to give in to USD since Switzerland lacked any reports to support its currency yesterday. On the other hand, the US had several hard-hitters that helped knock the ball out of the park for the USD.
Maybe things will start going the franc’s way again today.
Switzerland is scheduled to release its much-awaited retail sales report at 7:15 am GMT. Experts say a 3.2% year-on-year growth is likely for August after July posted a 4.7% uptick.
Fifteen minutes later, the Swiss will be rolling out their manufacturing PMI, which is expected to fall from 61.4 to 60.7 in September.
As I always say, watch out for any upside surprises that may send the franc skywards, bulls!
Boom-boom-pow! With guns a-blazin’ was how the franc started October. Investors didn’t seem to pay any mind to bad Swiss economic data and continued to buy up the franc. USDCHF wound up at .9751, 76 pips lower for the day.
Dollar weakness, rather than franc strength, helped take USDCHF lower. Switzerland provided little support for their currency as they published a couple of usually-bear-friendly reports.
First off, retail sales for the month of August ticked up by just 0.5% instead of 3.2% as most had anticipated. As you can see, compared to the previous month’s healthy 4.7% increase, August’s results were simply whack!
SVME followed up by unveiling its PMI figures and disappointed just as the retail sales report did. Falling from a reading of 61.4 in August, results for September came in at 59.7, which is 1.1 lower than expected. Though this number is still indicative of industry expansion, it also marks the second consecutive decline. If Switzerland keeps this up, they may have a problem on their hands.
Not much to look forward to from Switzerland this week. The only high caliber report due for release is tomorrow’s CPI report. They say we’re likely to see prices stay flat for the month of September, just as August recorded a 0.0% change. Be on the lookout for a downside surprise that may cause USDCHF to bounce from its downslide. Deflation has been a problem in Switzerland before, and negative results from this report may be a sign that it may be rearing its ugly head again. Catch the report at 7:15 am GMT!
What a way to start the week! The franc managed to gain against its major counterparts yesterday despite the lack of reports from Switzerland. EUR/CHF dropped by a whopping 131 pips at 1.3305, while USD/CHF tripped to its closing price of .9722.
Maybe we’ll see more action from Switzerland today when the CPI report for September is released at 7:15 am GMT. The inflation gauge is expected to stagnate with 0.0% growth, but a higher figure might boost the franc higher in the charts.
If you’ve got it, flaunt it! And that’s exactly what the franc did against the Greenback yesterday. USD/CHF recorded its third consecutive slide and dropped 51 pips to land at .9670.
As expected, prices of goods and services were unchanged in the month of September. Though it was widely expected, this has got a few worrywarts concerned since the previous month recorded flat prices, too. Remember, Switzerland was battling threats of deflation just a few months ago. In fact, they haven’t posted an increase in prices since April! Is deflation set to make a comeback?
Today, we get a break from reports. In the meantime, it would be wise to check on what the US is scheduled to publish. If their ADP employment survey prints worse than expected, it could boost the franc up as investors abandon the dollar.
The lack of reports from Switzerland didn’t stop the franc from gaining ground against the dollar yesterday. It was a normal day at the office for USD/CHF as it continued its downtrend and closed at .9611 to chalk up a 59-pip slide for the day.
Dollar weakness continued to push USD/CHF down. After the U.S. printed negative employment data, investors sold off the dollar in favor of the franc faster than you can say “Swiss cheese!”
If you’re looking to trade USD/CHF today, it looks like you’ll have to keep tabs on what the U.S. is releasing since Switzerland’s press is keeping mum. The U.S. is set to publish more employment data at 12:30 pm GMT. If its unemployment claims report turns out negative, the franc will probably extend its gains.
Poor Swissy. After rallying strongly and making new lows early during Asia, the Swissy was completely shattered and sold-off once the U.S. trading session went underway. USDCHF had dropped as low as .9556 before suddenly rallying back to the .9700 handle.
I don’t know about you, but I am not convinced about this move up. It’s just giving traders another chance to ride the overall Swissy-buying trend! In any case, we’ll see whether this theory of mine holds once the U.S. employment report comes out at 12:30 pm GMT today. If that report comes in worse than expected, it would give traders a reason to sell USDCHF.
The Swissy did it again! After USD/CHF had retraced a couple of pips on Thursday, traders found another reason to sell it off the very next day! USD/CHF closed out the week with at .9638, 102 pips lower from its opening price that week.
This time the culprit was the worse-than-expected results of the U.S. labor report. It showed that the net jobs lost in September were 95,000, and not 5,000 like initially expected. It looks like the sharp contrast between U.S.’s and Switzerland’s will continue to weigh down heavily on USD/CHF.
This week, the U.S. holidays will keep liquidity thin but that doesn’t mean price action will be quiet! On Tuesday, at 3:15 pm GMT, Switzerland’s producer price index (PPI) is scheduled for release. The PPI is considered as a leading indicator for inflation, as producers tend to pass on additional costs they incur to customers. Producer prices are expected to have risen by 0.2% in September, up 0.1% from the month before.
Have the Swissy bulls finally run out of steam? Even the Swissy couldn’t hold back the USD yesterday. From the week’s opening price of .9615, USD/CHF took a slow and steady trip north to hit a high of .9664.
As usual, no reports were rolled out in Switzerland. And with U.S. bankers busy partying their hearts out in celebration of Columbus day, it’s no surprise USD/CHF was a slow mover.
Since today will be another report-free day in Switzerland, you ought to keep an eye out for what the U.S. has prepared for the markets. At 6:00 pm GMT today, they’re supposed to publish their FOMC meeting minutes. Dovish remarks in that report may cause the Swissy to beef up once again against its American counterpart. Don’t miss it, homies!
The Swissy managed to extend its winning streak against the euro for a third day with a 61-pip win as EUR/CHF closed at 1.3320. Boo yeah! It also erased the loss it sustained from the dollar on Monday, with USD/CHF ending the day 76 pips lower at 0.9569. Oh Swissy, you’re so fine you blow my mind!
We didn’t hear economic hollers from Switzerland yesterday so keep tabs on its PPI figures for September later at 7:15 am GMT. Analysts are expecting input prices to have increased by 0.1% during the month, at the same rate as they did in August . Take note that a higher-than-expected figure will probably be bullish for the Swissy as this would imply increasing inflationary pressures in the country.
Yodel-eh-eeh-uh-oh! The Swissy seemed to have lost its mojo during yesterday’s trading as both USD/CHF and EUR/CHF closed the day higher at 0.9590 and 1.3385, respectively. Doing the math, we see that it gave up 21 pips to the dollar and 70 pips to the euro.
It might have been the disappointing inflation report that ticked off traders from the Swissy. Yesterday we saw that producer and import prices declined by 0.1% in September, erasing the increase it posted in August and coming short of the 0.1% growth forecast. Yikes! The decline probably fueled worries that deflation is still a problem in Switzerland.
Ah, it looks like we’re in for a snoozefest from here on out. Make sure you keep tabs on what’s up with the Swissy’s counterparts. Remember that the currency is considered as a ‘safe haven’ currency by investors and usually hustles when risk aversion kicks in. Good luck and happy trading!
I’m gonna start callin’ the Swissy “The Mailman”… because he always delivers! Haha! It delivered another strong performance against the Greenback yesterday, forcing USD/CHF to a new record low. Before it eventually closed at .9529, the pair had plunged from its opening price of .9591 and bottomed out at .9464.
Once again, Greenback weakness helped pull USD/CHF down the charts. Switzerland didn’t even need to publish any reports to beef up its currency!
Coming up… Nothing! No reports are due for release from Switzerland again today. So in the meantime, head on over to the U.S. as it’s scheduled to publish a few hard-hitters later in the day. Be on the lookout for worse-than-expected U.S. results because Swissy bulls love to feed off them!
The absence of economic reports left the franc at the mercy of market sentiment, during Friday’s trading. Its scorecard was as mixed as a bag of M&Ms as it sustained a 54-pip loss against the dollar when USD/CHF closed the week at 0.9584, and snatched a 10-pip win against the euro when EUR/CHF chilled at the 1.3400 psychological handle to end the day.
Ah, it looks like we’re also in for a snoozefest this week. We only have the trade balance report for September and ZEW’s economic survey for October due on Thursday. So until then, I guess the best thing to do is to gauge the market sentiment before trading the Swissy. Good luck and may the pips be with ya!
Ah, it seems like the Swissy got its mojo back as it posted gains against its major counterparts in yesterday’s trading. It was up by as much as 91 pips against the euro when EUR/CHF bottomed at 1.3306, before the pair ended the day at 1.3375 with a 22-pip gain for the Swissy. Against the dollar, it was able to snatch 17 pips as USD/CHF closed at 0.9560.
Word on the street is that the franc advanced thanks to remarks about the euro zone’s fragile economy. Hmmm, you may want to keep yourself updated on the [ECB](http://http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/ECB)’s bond purchasing program and continued speculation about [QE2](http://http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/Quantitative_Easing) in the U.S., as doom-and-gloom talks may jump start risk aversion and reel in the Swissy with a handful of pips. Good luck!
Like other non-dollar majors, the Swiss franc got sliced up like a block of cheese in yesterday’s trading session. Okay that was a corny one, but it’s actually a pretty accurate description of what happened! Thanks to renewed interest in the dollar, USD/CHF climbed up the charts to close above the .9700 handle, giving it a 145 pip gain for the day.
You can pretty much chalk this one up to a major dollar move. Thanks to news from China as well as some traders cutting back on their short dollar positions, we saw the dollar gain across the board.
Take note though, that the franc did gain versus the euro. This may indicate that part of the move was due to a run of risk aversion. Remember, the franc seems to have regained its place as a safe haven currency over the past few months. If traders decide to cut back on their risky positions, we may just see the franc remain steady versus higher yielding currencies.
After their short two-day rest, the Swissy bulls are at it again! Thanks to more talks of further quantitative easing from the Fed, the Greenback fell across the board, much to the delight of the Swissy bulls. After briefly rallying to .9750 on Tuesday, USD/CHF fell back to .9617 yesterday.
No important data was released from Switzerland yesterday, so the Swissy’s rally was likely the result of a weak Greenback more than anything else. In fact, if you look at the charts of other major currencies, you’d see that most of them, if not all, posted huge gains over the Greenback.
Today, two important reports will print.
The first one is Switzerland’s trade balance. Set to come out at 6:15 am GMT, it is expected to show a 1.2 billion CHF surplus for September, up from the 0.58 billion CHF surplus seen the previous month. The expected rise in the trade balance seems to indicate that the Swissy’s strength isn’t weighing down on the demand for the its exports. Hmm, another reason to buy the Swissy?
The second one, which is will be released at 9:00 am GMT, is the ZEW economic expectations survey. 9:00 am GMT. The previous recent report printed a -5.1 reading, which means that investors and analysts were pessimistic about the state of Switzerland’s economy for the next six months. If the survey later manages to hit positive territory, it could help the Swissy clock in further gains over the Greenback.
The Swissy didn’t get any sweet lovin’ from the bulls yesterday. It lost against the dollar by 49 pips when USD/CHF closed higher at .9677 and the euro by 45 pips as EUR/CHF ended the day at 1.3476.
So why did traders dump the Swissy? Hmmm, it might have been because of the [trade balance](http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/Trade_Balance) report for September. Yeah, I know that the 1.69 billion CHF trade surplus, which beat the 1.2 billion CHF consensus, should have been bullish for the currency. But looking deeper, we see that the only reason why [exports](http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/Exports) outpaced [imports](http://http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/Imports) was because demand at home and abroad both fell during the month.
Aside from that, we also saw that the [SNB](http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/SNB) is diversifying its currency reserves by exchanging its euros for dollars. The SNB Bulletin for the third quarter revealed that at the end of September, the bank’s euro holdings amounted to only 90.9 billion EUR, down from 120.6 billion EUR during the second quarter. On the other hand, their dollars increased to 54.6 billion USD from 44.9 billion USD.
Some are taking this as an implication that the central bank is now paying closer attention to USD/CHF than EUR/CHF. You may want to take this into consideration when you trade the Swissy because with USD/CHF hovering over its all-time low and the [BOJ](http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/Bank_of_Japan) signaling for help to weaken the yen (and in so doing strengthen the dollar), the SNB may just go back to its old [intervention](http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/Central_Bank_Intervention) habits.
Yodel-eeh-uh-oh! The Swissy closed the week scoring losses against its major counterparts with USD/CHF 120 pips higher at .9797 and EUR/CHF up at 1.3646 with 173 pips.
The absence of economic hollers and comments from the [SNB](http://www.babypips.com/forexpedia/SNB) has left a few naysayers scratching their heads trying to figure out what caused the avalanche on the Swissy’s pips. Some are saying that perhaps the move was related to mergers and acquisitions activity.
You may want to keep an ear out for updates on the Swissy’s sell-off on Friday as this could affect its fate on the charts this week. Speaking of which, our [economic calendar](http://www.babypips.com/tools/forex-calendar/) points out that we only have a couple of reports on tap for the currency.
The first one being the UBS Consumption Indicator for September which is due on Wednesday at 6:00 am GMT and the KOF leading indicator for October which is scheduled on Friday at 9:30 am GMT. The latter is seen to indicate that economic activity in Switzerland may be slowing with the forecast down at 2.18 from its previous reading which was at 2.21.
Let’s give a major fist bump to the franc! Despite the lack of reports in the land of Swiss watches yesterday, the franc managed to gain against its major counterparts on euro and dollar weakness. EUR/CHF ended the day 59 pips lower at 1.3560, while USD/CHF leveled off to a 33-pip drop after falling to an intraday low of .9664.
Switzerland will witness more action today when the UBS consumption indicator is released at 6:00 am GMT. Will the data keep its consecutive rise by printing higher than its 1.95 figure in August?