The Swiss franc exchange traded fund has been slowly retaking ground, despite the Swiss National Bank’s interventions in its currency market to weaken the franc.
CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust (NYSEArca: FXF) is up about 4% year to date.
The SNB has capped the franc at 1.20 to the euro currency; however, over the past few weeks, the franc has been trading above the 1.20 franc threshold and bouncing above most other major currencies, despite the diminished demand for the Swiss franc as a safe-haven asset, reports Nichalos Hastings for The Wall Street Journal.
Mitul Kotecha, chief economist at Credit Agricole, believes that the euro-to-franc pair is closely linked to the difference between the Swiss and German bond yields, and once German yields start rising compared to Swiss yields, the franc may finally feel some relief.
In light of the European Central Bank’s decision to inject half trillion euros into the banking system, the Swiss franc could begin to fall against the euro currency.
Meanwhile, the Swiss franc depreciated against the U.S. dollar Wednesday after Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke revealed a lesser inclination to implement another round of quantitative easing, a positive factor for the U.S. dollar, according to a separate WSJ report.
“Although the Fed chairman believes that monetary policy needs to remain extremely accommodative, there is no immediate need for QE3,” Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT, said in the article.