Financial Highlights in Switzerland
On Wednesday, the Federal Council said it had adopted additional measures in the eighth package of European Union sanctions against Russia. It will enter into force at 6 pm on 23 November.
Among other measures, the package anticipates restrictions on “iron and steel products, aerospace goods, and goods of economic importance to Russia”, and there are bans on providing various services (engineering, architectural, legal, or IT) to the Russian government and Russian companies.
According to this year’s Credit Suisse Worry Barometer, the environment is the number-one concern of the Swiss in 2022, followed by pensions and energy.
Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed said the environment or climate change was their top concern. Next came pension provisions and having enough money for retirement, with 37%. And, in third place was energy with 25%, up 11% from last year.
The Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation expects Swiss GDP to grow by 2.1% this year, down from a previous forecast of 2.5%. For 2023, they forecast Swiss growth to be 0.6%, down from the 1.4% previously estimated. In 2024, the OECD expects a recovery of +1.4%.
Financial Highlights in the World
UK Manufacturing PMI stood at 46.2 in November 2022, above the expectations (45.8). Although the data suggested that U.K. economic contraction didn’t worsen in November, some forward-looking data such as new orders signal the rate of contraction could accelerate in the coming months, Berenberg economists Holger Schmieding and Kallum Pickering say in a note.
Eurozone Service PMI stood at 48.6 in November 2022, unchanged from October’s 21-month low but above market expectations. The latest reading pointed to a fourth consecutive month of contraction in the service sector. New orders fell at a steeper rate, and backlogs of work continued to decrease. And the pace of job creation slowed.
US Service PMI contracted in November to 46.1, down from 47.8 in October and missing market expectations of 47.9. The reading pointed to the second-fastest rate of contraction in the service sector, excluding the initial pandemic phase in the first half of 2020, as high inflation and rising interest rates hit demand. New business dropped the most since May 2020, and employment barely rose . And backlogs of work and capacity pressure were down.
Financial Highlights in Companies
On Wednesday, Credit Suisse had an extraordinary general meeting where approved the issuance of new shares in exchange for the cash injection. The funds will come largely from the Middle East, with the Saudi National Bank agreeing to stump up CHF 1.5 billion for a 9.9% stake in the bank.
Before the EGM, Credit Suisse issued a market update forecasting a CHF1.5 billion loss for the fourth quarter. Wealthy clients had emptied 10% of their assets from the bank vaults.
Axpo is significantly increasing its solar initiatives in Switzerland. By 2030, it wants to build solar plants in the Alps and the Swiss plateau.
Those solar plants will enable the annual needs of more than 300,000 Swiss households. After the system completion at the Muttsee dam, the next alpine solar system is already in preparation. These solar projects are a big step to a sustainable and secure power supply, especially in winter.
