finance

From A to Z, the Economy’s keywords

Health-care stocks are one of the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500 so far this year, with shares down -1,87% compared with the broader index’s +13,18% gain as investors fretted about everything from Obamacare to drug prices.

Several investors and analysts said they expect a clearer view of the political outlook for insurers and drug companies after the presidential election. Both Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton have criticized drug prices and want to make adjustments to the health-care system.

The same fate has been shared by the European equity market, where the Stoxx 600 Healt Care Supersector Index had a decrease of -10,89% while the main Stoxx 600 Index closed with a loss of -1,59%.

After nearly seven years from the end of the deepest global financial crisis of the postwar period, growth continues to be slow in advanced countries and falling in most emerging market economies. There is even the risk that the world may be drifting toward a new global financial crisis and even secular stagnation. These are the issues examined in this paper.

This Newsletter has reiterated that bonds are not an asset class that should be in one`s portfolio unless they are safe short-term high-yield corporate issues. The election victory of Donald Trump seems to have been the catalyst that set off a global rout for fixed-income securities. 10yr Treasuries yield increased from 1.88% on 8th November to 2.34% on 18th November 2016. Of course, if the yield increases, that means that the price on paper in the secondary market decreases.

Allianz Global Investors has brought a volatility-focused absolute return fund to the Swiss market.

To date there has been scarcely any data on asset management in Switzerland. In particular, there has been no information available on the managed volumes of discretionary asset management mandates from the perspective of Switzerland as a production location.

Financial traders can be better than machine, according to research published in Scientific Reports "People with greater sensitivity to interoceptive signals … perform better in laboratory studies of risky decision-making" and a sixth sense, or just a gut feeling, is the best friend for a trader.

Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Sussex in England and Australia’s Queensland University of Technology found that the best traders are aware of their bodies’ signals, even if unconsciously, and use them to make more money.

SIX Swiss Exchange is the home market for global corporations such as ABB, Credit Suisse, Nestlé, Novartis, Roche and UBS. They are also part of indices such as the SMI® that attract a lot of interest worldwide.
However investors are able to trade more than just Swiss stocks on the Swiss exchange. In the Sponsored Foreign Shares segment, they have a choice that extends to over 500 shares from 26 countries! With over 150 securities each, the USA and Germany are the most represented markets in the segment.