Swiss Franc went ahead not only against Euro, but most of its major counterparts too. On the other hand, as the Chinese manufacturing report showed that the industry unexpectedly experienced a decline; stocks all over the world went down. On yesterday, Swiss Franc weakened through 1.26 per Euro for the first time in last 2 years. Swiss Franc is often regarded as a haven, especially at the times of heightened global stress, as a study published by the Swiss National Bank on last month. Incidentally, on yesterday, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke stated that the Federal Reserve may go for slowing down the monthly bond purchases in future.

AS far as the Chief Foreign Exchange Analyst of Swissquote Bank SA, Peter Rosenstreich is concerned, markets turned to a risk off mode with help of the comments made by Bernanke. Apart from that, it will now be pushing the investors towards haven currencies again.

On today, Swiss Franc went ahead by 1.3% against Euro and the same is currently priced at 1.2420 per Euro. Today’s gain marks the biggest of the currency since 5th September, 2011, a day before the Swiss National Bank set a cap of 1.20 Francs per Euro in an attempt to ward off deflation and a recession. On the other hand, against USD, Swiss Franc jumped up by 1.1% and it is currently at 96.75 Centimes per USD.

Incidentally, on yesterday, the Swiss Franc experienced a slump after the President of the Swiss National Bank; Thomas Jordon stated that a shift on the possible limit on the Euro exchange rate was in the toolkit of the Swiss National Bank.

Rosenstreich acknowledged that the comments made by Thomas Jordon increased the level of uncertainty when it comes to the next possible movement to be undertaken by the Swiss National Bank. However, as the market is currently expecting a possible movement from the Central Bank, it kind of got ahead of itself, as mentioned by Jordon.

Incidentally, Rand is the worst performing emerging market currency for 2013 and it declined for the 11th straight day. Rand is currently trading at the weakest level against USD on a closing basis since March, 2009. On yesterday, around 10,000 textile workers of South Africa announced strike. Apart from that, the comments of the President of the Chairman of Federal Reserve on slowing down monetary stimulus, Ben S. Bernanke, made many investors afraid that the US recovery may be endangered. According to analysts of Investec Asset Management, Rand will probably weaken to 9.86 per USD in the short term before it rebounds. However, no time frame for the same was given by Investec Asset Management. Vivienne Taberer, who works as the Fund Manager of Investec Asset Management, thinks that the weakening of Rand is bit overdone and the positioning is getting stretched further as well. In the medium term, Rand may strengthen to 9.30 per USD, as commented by Taberer.

Rand has tumbled by 12% in 2013. On today, it went down by 0.3% and is at 9.5965 per USD. Yields on the benchmark 10.5% Rand Bonds due in December, 2026 increased by 4 basis points and these are currently at 7.06%.

For the first time in last 7 months, the manufacturing in China probably has contracted in this month, thereby supporting the view that the economic growth of the country is losing stream for the 2nd quarter. Markit Economics and HSBC Holdings released a preliminary reading of 49.6 for the Purchasing Managers’ Index and this is lower than the expectation of 50.4 set by the economists.

Gill Marcus, the Governor of South African Reserve Bank, is going to announce the interest rates of South Africa. Most of the economists believe that the rate will be kept at 5%, a figure that’s the lowest in 30 years. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index declined by 2% and this is expected to experience the biggest decline of the same in last 10 months.

As far as comments of the Senior Strategist of PFA Pension A/S, Witold Bahrke is concerned, on the morning; the European stocks were hit hard by the risky assets. Apart from that, the negative signals coming out of the macro fundamentals and monetary policy didn’t help things either.

The share trading volume for today was 24% higher in comparison with the average of the last 30 days. The relative strength index of the gauge declined to 55 from its earlier value of 77. Incidentally, relative strength index measures how fast the prices are increasing. Any reading above 70 denotes that the stocks are rallying faster than the average.

The national benchmark indexes tumbled in all of the 18 Western Europe markets. The benchmark gauge of UK, FTSE 100 declined by 2.1%, marking its biggest decline in the last 12 months. On the other hand, both DAX of Germany and CAC 40 of France went down by 2.1%.

The 2nd largest carmaker in Europe, Peugeot, went down by 5.3% and each share costs 6.99 Euros now. Daimler AG tumbled by 3.3% to 48.05 Euros, whereas, Renault SA declined by 4% to 59.66 Euros. The biggest platinum producer in the world, Anglo American experienced a tumble of 5.1% and each share of the same costs 1,570 Pence now. On the other hand, the 2nd largest mining company in the world, Rio Tinto Group saw its shares declining by 4.3% taking price of each share to 2,913 Pence.

The biggest bank in Europe, HSBC Holdings went down by 3.4% and each share costs 741.8 Pence now. On the other hand, the largest lender of Switzerland, UBS AG, declined by 3.8% and each share is priced at 17.32 Swiss Francs. An index of the banking shares experienced a slid of 3.2%, the biggest since last September. SABMiller shares declined by 2.1% to 3,462 Pence.

After the property crash in Spain, several lenders such as Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA and Banco Santander SA sold assets in the Latin American region for replenishing the capital which was depleted. Whereas Banco Bilbao sold its Mexican Pension Fund business, Banco Santander sold its stake in Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico. CaixaBank with this sale will join those lenders. The lender is currently aiming to bolster the financial strength of the same at it is looking at a core capital ratio of more than 8% by end of 2013. It will take all the adjustments required under the Basel III rules into account.

According to the analyst of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd., Antonio Ramirez, Inbursa is one of those few of CaixaBank’s investments through which the lender can realize clear gains. Hence, when it was about selling assets, Inbursa had to be one of the obvious candidates for CaixaBank. Ramirez added that in the recent years, the Mexican bank valuations have performed pretty well and he rated the lender as market perform.

Inbursa shares experienced a decline of 2.1% and each share currently costs 28.75 Mexican Pesos. Through yesterday, the shares have experienced a decline of 25% in 2013. The benchmark IPC index, on the other hand, experienced a tumble of 8.2% in 2013.

In 2008, La Caixa Group bought 20% stake at Inbursa for a price of 1.5 billion Euros. This was done in an attempt to expand in the Americas. After the deal, Inbursa shares have jumped ahead by 66% in the 5 years. CaixaBank shares, on the other hand, have jumped up by 1.2% on today and each share costs 2.76 Euros now. The total market capitalization of the lender is now at 12.8 billion Euros.

According to the Departmental Head of European Hedge Fund Sales at Mizuho Corporate Bank, Neil Jones, the report of retail sales is going to add a downward pressure to the Sterling. Jones added that he and his company has more optimistic view on the UK market, if compared to market consensus, however, the data coming out will definitely be paving way for further quantitative easing and hence, this is not going to be helping Sterling in anyway.

Sterling experienced a drop of 0.5% on today and it is currently priced at 85.56 Pence per Euro. At one point of time, it declined to 85.90 Pence, marking its weakest figure since 22nd April. Against USD, Pound dropped to $1.5020, marking its lowest value since 14th March.

UK retail sales figures including fuel declined by 1.3% in April, if compared to the figures of March. In March, it declined by 0.6% as well, as mentioned by the Office for National Statistics. Economists predicted that the same will be increasing by 0.1%; however, the actual results were different. A separate report that came out on today showed that the underlying budget deficit increased further.

According to Senior Currency Strategist of Royal Bank of Canada, Elsa Lignos, as the retail sales data was much weaker if compared with estimates, it was used as an excuse for selling Pound. Lignos thinks that the market is entering another negative sentiment period for Pound.

According to the Chief Investment Officer of Solaris Group LLC, Timothy Ghriskey, it’s very early to talk of any kind of tightening. Ghriskey added that if tightening is talked about, that will push out the timing for any surge in the interest rates or curtail any bond buying program as well. It is promoting the economic growth and that is what the stocks live for ultimately.

The broad index has experienced a decline of 0.7% in 2013, whereas, the MSCI World Index has gone ahead by 14%. As far as the developing nation stocks are concerned, health care shares experienced increase, whereas, the phone companies declined.

The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index exchange-traded fund surged ahead by 0.1% and the same is currently at 43.48. On the other hand, a measure of options prices on the fund and possibility of price swings, the Chicago Board Options Exchange Emerging Markets ETF Volatility Index declined by 0.1% and the same is currently at 17.47.

The benchmark stock gauge of Turkey, Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange went to an all-time high figure as the same has increased by 2.2%. The biggest listed bank of Turkey, Turkiye Garanti Bankasi, went ahead by 4.7%.

Russian benchmark stock gauge Micex Index went ahead by 1.8%, marking its highest surge in the last 2 months. The ongoing sale of VTB of $3.3 billion of new shares in Moscow is expected to boost the free float of the same to 39% and it may see MSCI increase the weighting of the bank to 3.3%, from its earlier value of 2.1%. Sberbank thinks that the move of MSCI may trigger passive fund inflows worth $64 million.

As mentioned by the Central Statistical Office on 15th May, in the first quarter, the economy of Hungary has expanded by 0.7% from the final 3 months of last year, marking the first quarterly growth within a year’s time. The expansion in output solidify efforts of Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary to meet European Union budget targets as he wanted to move out of the excessive deficit procedure of the Euro region within this year. Incidentally, in a research note, analysts of Goldman Sachs mentioned that they underestimated the degree of risk premium for weaker economic outcomes which has already dubbed in Forint. There are two positive catalysts for Forint in forms of the strong GDP print and the smooth outcome in the current budget negotiations with the European Union, as mentioned by the analysts of Goldman Sachs.

The benchmark 10-year Forint bond yields were more or less unchanged at 5.06% on today as it reached a record low figure of 4.93% on last week. If the yields on US Treasuries of the same maturity are considered, those increased by 4 basis points and are currently at 1.97%. On 23rd April, the benchmark rate was cut to 4.75% by the Central Bank of Hungary.

On last month, Goldman analysts stated that Forint would weaken due to the narrowing rate premium and also due to the fact that the policy makers of Hungary may put up with a weaker level of Forint. The analysts, on today’s note, commented further that the broader fundamental view on Forint of them has not changed much. The trade incurred possible 2.86% loss including negative carry of 32 basis points.

According to the Portfolio Manager of Stenner Investment Partners, Youssef Zohny, thanks to the comments made by Bernanke, the morning started off pretty well for the Canadian stocks. With the minutes of FOMC, as they talk more of stabilization now, the market is taking it as less stimulus. Though less stimulus is positive on medium or long term, on short term basis, it’s negative in nature for markets.

Many of the officials of the Federal Reserve think that they should taper bond buying as early as the next policy maker meeting to be held between 17th June and 18th June, in case, the economic reports shows proper evidence of strong and sustained growth. The details were released in the minutes of the 30th April – 1st May meeting held.

The S&P/TSX Materials Index increased by 1.5% on today after advancing by 1.6% on yesterday. In 2013, the gauge has experienced a decline of 24% as the gold prices retreated into a bear market. Among companies, Goldcorp went ahead by 2.6%, whereas, Barrick Gold advanced by 1%.

First Quantum Minerals advanced by 2% and each share is priced at C$19.27 now. Copper Futures rose to a figure that’s the highest in the last 5 weeks. On the other hand, Teck Resources increased by 2.9% and each share of the same costs C$29.32 now.

Copper Mountain Mining saw its shares increasing by 9.9% and each share is now priced at C$1.78. The company announced that it will be replacing its damaged transformer at its mine in the Southern British Columbia and the operations had resumed before the estimated timeframe. The transformer problem was disclosed by the company on 17th May after the regular trading ended and after the news came out, the stocks went down by 9.5%.

Not only against USD, but Sterling went down against most of its major counterparts. The Bank of England will be publishing its minutes of the 8th – 9th May meeting on tomorrow. It is expected that the number of policy makers who voted for boosting the asset purchases will be revealed through the same. As the inflation data was released, the UK Government bonds rose a bit, but, on a whole, they are more or less unchanged on today.

According to the Global Head of Currency Strategy Department of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Peter Frank, there is negative sentiment for Sterling as quite clearly, the weaker inflation is expected to open door for further monetary stimulus. Frank added that the current figures have cemented the decision of the investors to sell Sterling.

Sterling declined by 0.6% on today and it is currently priced at $1.5157. At one point of time, it went down to $1.5113, marking the lowest level since 4th April. Against Euro, Pound has declined by 0.8% and it is currently at 85.11 Pence per Euro, therefore registering the biggest decline of the same since 7th March.

In 2013, Sterling has experienced a tumble of 3% so far, thereby becoming the 2nd worst performer after Yen, if the developed nation currencies are considered. USD has surged ahead by 4.8%, whereas, Euro went ahead by 2.3%.

When it comes to the consumer prices, the same has jumped ahead by 2.4% in last April, from where it was a year ago. Incidentally, for March, the increase was of 2.8%. The statistics were released by the Office for National Statistics. Incidentally, analysts predicted an increase of 2.6%. If producer prices are taken into consideration, it increased at an annual rate of 1.1%, marking its least surge since September, 2009.

Rates Strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland, Simon Peck, thinks that the gilts have outperformed a bit. The market is currently concerned that the reflation trade may be going away, as mentioned by Peck.

James Bullard, the President of the St. Louis Fed stated that the Central Bank of US should continue with the bond buying program as it is the best available option for the policy makers for giving the lower than expected growth a boost. Bullard will be voting on the Federal Open Market Committee in 2013 and that is responsible for setting policies.

Yield on the Mexican Peso bonds which are due in 2024 went down by a single basis point and the same is currently at 4.75%. The price has increased by 0.13 Centavo and is at 146.69 Centavos for each Mexican Peso.

On the other hand, the major currency of Switzerland, Swiss Franc declined to a value that’s the lowest in last 4 months after tumbling by 0.6% against Euro. It is currently priced at 1.2529 per Euro, marking its weakest level since 18th January. Against USD, Swiss Franc went down by 0.6% and is currently at 97.35 Centimes per USD.

Incidentally, the International Monetary Fund has mentioned that as the bank has introduced negative interest rate on the excess deposits, it may help to cool down the real estate market of this European country.

Chief Economist of the Bank of Montreal, Doug Porter stated that Canadian Dollar is currently overvalued by 5%-10% if the levels of commodity prices are taken into consideration. Porter added that Canadian Dollar will continue to be supported by the safe haven flows in the next 2 years as well. Thereby, the currency will be trading near parity with the USD before weakening is experienced in the medium term basis.

Porter thinks that the Bank of Canada should not be showing any kind of urgency for increasing the interest rates. According to Porter, there is a case for the Central Bank of this country to drop the tightening bias as the housing market has cooled down off late.