Expert opinion

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits decreased more than expected last week, hitting the lowest level over the past five weeks, official figures revealed on Thursday. The US Department of Labour reported initial jobless claims fell 25,000 to a total of 234,000 in the week ended April 1, down from the preceding week’s upwardly revised reading of 259,000. This was the biggest weekly decline since April 2015. Meanwhile, market analysts expected unemployment claims to plunge only 251,000 during the reported week. The number of job-seeking persons decreased from 2,052,000 to 2,028,000, thus, affecting the moving average, which hit its lowest level since June 2000. At the same time, the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate of 1.5% remained unchanged from last week. In general, the fact that jobless claims have been fluctuating around 260,000 for more than two years, indicating that the US has a healthy labour market. In addition, the largest spike in unemployment claims was recorded in New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California, while the largest drop in unemployment happened in Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky.

Manipulation of the gold price has been going on for decades, and no one has gone to prison or been fined. Price discovery in the gold market has been eliminated. This is scandalous.

Diamonds still enjoy an absolute freedom of movement, unlike other goods. People can go wherever they want with them, because diamonds are still seen as a commodity

Sustainable future means helping citizens achieve the best income in retirement on a sustainable basis.

The two big banks are yet again trading neck to neck. Indeed, both their share prices have been oscillating slightly below the CHF 16 mark for more than two months (between 15 and 16 for UBS and 14 and 16 for Crédit Suisse). Crédit Suisse lags a bit following the sharp fall it saw in early 2016, yet its higher beta of 1.57 (1.07 for UBS) has enabled it to catch up most of this underperformance. We expect more ring-fencing between the two over the next few months.

Data released on Thursday revealed that the Swiss KOF leading indicator surged slightly over the month of March, reconfirming the strong February data and suggesting a better-than-expected growth of the country’s economy. The KOF Swiss Economic Institute reported the KOF index added 0.7 points last month and held strongly above its long-term average, jumping to 107.6 from a downwardly revised reading of 106.9 registered in the preceding month. The upmove was mainly driven by the positive trend established in the construction sector coupled with favourable signals from the financial sector and domestic private consumption.

The economic outlook is bright enough to warrant a pro risk investment stance. Our overweight equities/ underweight duration seems consistent with a firming of global growth and an unwinding of prior deflation fear.

Around the time of the S&P 500’s launch in 1957, a remake of the Hollywood musical Anything Goes opened in cinemas across America. The movie featured Cole Porter’s eponymous song, which began with the words “Times have changed”.