Some volatile moves were experienced in the USDCHF pair as US CPI numbers and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke?s speech had opposite effects. Although lower than previous month, inflation beat economic forecasts by rising 0.2%, which let the US dollar regain some of the recent losses that it had incurred against its counterparts.
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Novartis Cuts Forecast of Sales Growth
Novartis, one of the leading European drug makers, cut its 2007 sales-growth forecast because of generic competition and said it planned to buy back $4 billion of stock. Profit rose 18 percent in the second quarter from a year ago to $2.02 billion helped by revenue from aging best-sellers like the heart pill Diovan and Gleevec for cancer. Revenue climbed 10 percent.
Source: International Herald Tribune
Swiss Football Seeks The Limelight
Switzerland’s football season gets underway this week with many fans and experts hoping that this year’s competition will be the best yet. New stadiums, greater television coverage and Switzerland’s co-hosting of Euro 2008 at the end of the season are all cited as factors that could help bring Swiss domestic football out of the shadows of its European neighbors.
Source: Swissinfo
Switzerland Ready To Return Mobutu Funds
Fitch Ratings said it has affirmed Geneva-based private bank Pictet & Cie’s (Pictet) issuer default ratings with a stable outlook citing the bank’s good profitability, excellent and increasingly global franchise, sound growth in assets under management and strong capitalization. The Swiss bank’s long-term and short-term IDRs were affirmed at ‘AA-’ and ‘F1+’ respectively. The rating agency said the bank’s risk appetite remains low and exposure is subject to conservative limits.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/07/18/afx3924662.html
Source: Forbes
Currency Market
Some volatile moves were experienced in the USDCHF pair as US CPI numbers and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke?s speech had opposite effects. Although lower than previous month, inflation beat economic forecasts by rising 0.2%, which let the US dollar regain some of the recent losses that it had incurred against its counterparts. However; two hours later, Bernanke?s less hawkish-than-expected testimony changed the picture and greenback started declining again across the board. According to Bernanke, “core inflation should edge a bit lower, on net, over the remainder of this year and next year” and that the economy should expand at a “moderate pace” over the second half of next year. As of 12:00 EST, the pair was trading at 1.1993. Franc traded sideways against other major counterparts as there were no economic releases today.
Equity Market: Swiss Market Index
Swiss share prices closed sharply lower as equity markets both in the US and Europe were in negative territory after Bear Stearns commented that its two hedge funds which were at a risk of default might not be able to pay back anything to its investors. At the close, the Swiss Market Index was 1.58 percent lower at 9,074.07. Financial stocks suffered the most with Credit Suisse leading the decline as it fell 2.5 percent at 87.45sfr. Zurich financial fell too even after saying that it has created a new M&A unit to capture a share of 4 trillion markets.
Fixed-Income Market: 10-Year Swiss Government Bonds
Swiss government bonds gained amidst a flight-to-quality into more secured assets. The yield on the 10-year Swiss bonds plunged 6 basis points to close the day at 3.261 percent.
