La Financière de l'Echiquier

La Financière de l'Echiquier

Alexandre Sauterel
11 Avenue du General Dufour / 1204 Geneve
Phone: +41 79 576 55 98
E-Mail: asauterel@lfde.com
Web: https://www.lfde.com/en-ch/

At a glance

3 Funds
3 Unit/Shares
19 Documents
0 Legal Announcements

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Provider News

  • No mercy for growth

    29.09.2022 21:57 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: This is the clear message sent by all major central banks recently. Growth is about to be sacrificed on the altar of inflation. There has been an unprecedented series of moves since the start of the month. On 6 September, the Reserve Bank of Australia raised rates by 0.5%. It was followed the next day by the Bank of Canada with an increase of 1.25%. On 9 September, it was the turn of the European Central Bank...

  • ECB challenges: Faster, higher, stronger

    15.09.2022 16:41 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: The Olympic motto perfectly encapsulates the challenge facing the European Central Bank (ECB) at present. Faster, because there is an urgent need to hold back economic activity to prevent ongoing overheating of prices becoming self-sustaining. Higher, because after 10 years in low or even negative territory, key rates have reached levels not seen for more than a decade. And stronger, because the magnitude of...

  • Hope for a soft landing in the US?

    08.09.2022 07:54 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: "Even if the economy were to go into a recession, we have to get inflation down” – this statement from Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester could not be clearer. Jerome Powell, Chair of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) said nothing less, albeit in more diplomatic terms, at the Jackson Hole Symposium of central bankers at the end of August. This warning reminded markets of an unpleasant reality after a summer of...

  • Promises are only binding on those who believe them

    26.07.2022 14:31 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: This quotation attributed to former French President Jacques Chirac is a fair summary of the points made by Christine Lagarde at the meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) held on 21st of July. First and foremost, this is apt because of the ECB’s decision to increase its key rates by 50 basis points instead of the 25 basis points hike announced a few weeks earlier. The Frankfurt-based central bank chose...

  • A Changing Landscape

    18.07.2022 23:33 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: Germany’s foreign trade figures, published in early July, are one of the signs of the ongoing upheaval. For the first time since 1991 and the post-reunification consumption frenzy, Germany posted a net trade deficit of €1 billion in May. On the back of a sharp rise in imports and sluggish exports, this balance reflects the explosion in energy prices, but also the slowdown in foreign demand for products made in...

  • A market reset

    14.07.2022 14:34 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: After concentrating on inflation during the first half of the year, investors may now be moving on to focus their attention on the slowdown in global growth. This seems to be the message sent in recent weeks by the direction of sovereign bonds yields, which are reassuming their safe haven status. After US 10-year rates flirting with 3.5% and their German counterparts with 2%, they have declined to 3% and 1.2%,...

  • The silk road – road to perdition or the only way out?

    06.07.2022 10:29 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: Central banks around the world are being forced to drastically tighten financial conditions to combat inflation, pushing their economies to the edge of the precipice. But this is not the case for them all. One central bank – in addition to Japan, which looks set to change course soon – is resisting this trend and doing the exact opposite. The People’s Bank of China is easing monetary conditions to support the...

  • Is the Fed short-sighted or inspired?

    29.06.2022 13:24 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: In recent weeks the US administration as a whole – President Biden, Treasury Secretary Yellen and the Fed Chair – have appeared increasingly willing to assume the risk of a recession deliberately caused by rate hikes. Apart from during times of war, market economies generally aim to promote short-term GDP growth at the expense of other assets such as the environment, but we are currently experiencing a rare...

  • Inflation: a “major challenge” for the European Central Bank

    14.06.2022 10:55 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: After months during which the European Central Bank (ECB) may have seemed to be acting the ostrich on spiking inflation, calling it “temporary”, the ostrich has finally turned into a hawk, determined to tackle inflation aggressively. Thursday 9 June 2022 will be seen as a black day for the ECB. Through the voice of its President, Christine Lagarde, the Governing Council sounded the end of recess. In...

  • Has the Fed managed to pull off a masterstroke?

    31.05.2022 17:39 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: At the start of the year, the US central bank was behind the curve on the fight against inflation. It has since made a huge effort to regain credibility with its statements and actions, which has come at the cost of a sharp and simultaneous correction in both equities and bonds – a rare occurrence. A high price has been paid, with a fall of close to 10% in the sovereign bonds of so-called rich countries and even...

  • In search of lost growth

    24.05.2022 10:24 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: Global growth for 2022 was forecast to be 4.4% at the beginning of the year – it’s now expected at 3.3% according to the Bloomberg consensus. It all started so well. Last December, the global economy ended a historic 2021 with growth of 6.1% on the back of the post-COVID recovery, with momentum looking positive for the coming year. But the last few months have thrown a spanner in the works. Firstly, the Russian...

  • Will the war in Ukraine fuel deglobalisation?

    19.05.2022 10:30 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: While the immediate consequences of the Russia-Ukraine conflict are obvious, particularly in humanitarian terms, the longer-term effects may be harder to grasp. And yet, the war’s effects could have a profound impact on the world’s economic and geopolitical structure in the coming decades. In particular, they are likely to shake up the order that emerged from the Bretton Woods Agreement at the end of the Second...

  • Is the Chinese dragon flying too close to the sun?

    17.05.2022 09:17 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: As the investor community considers the possibility of economic recession, China is once again proving to be ahead of the curve. Economic activity, the regulation of tech companies, geopolitical and political worries, the real estate market – all indicators are in the red, suggesting that China is undergoing a dramatic economic slowdown. Could this set of circumstances represent an attractive investment...

  • GAFAM – a perfect reflection of the global macroeconomic situation

    03.05.2022 15:01 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: With the first quarter 2022 reporting season in full swing, statements from the big tech giants in the US, known collectively as GAFAM, perfectly mirror the difficulties faced by the global economy. War in Ukraine, rising salaries, supply chain issues, tougher regulations and a hike in energy prices – each of these had a direct impact on at least one of the big five tech companies. Online advertising giant...

  • The oak and the reeds in the inflationary storm

    27.04.2022 21:59 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: Inflation is raging. Interest rates are rising. There is war in Europe. Shanghai is locked down with COVID 19. But the equity market is holding up well – “I bend, but do not break” . Since the beginning of the year, most major equity markets (with the exception of the Nasdaq) have of course fallen, but only by a modest 5% to 10% . Some have fallen more sharply, such as China, down by over 20%, but this is a...

  • Has inflation peaked?

    21.04.2022 11:42 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: Underlying inflation grew less than expected in March, second-hand car prices tumbled and real estate inflation slowed; this was all that was needed for the latest US inflation statement to end with the suggestion that inflation may have peaked. In a totally anachronistic way, we saw the reappearance of the term “transitory”, despite the fact that inflation has been high for close to a year in the US and is...

  • Companies desperately seek employees

    14.04.2022 15:59 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: If there is one aspect of the economy that is rarely the focus of forecasters, it is the labour market. It is often considered a lagging indicator for growth and with statistics published infrequently and well after the event, it is the poor relative in the forecasting world. This could change in the coming months. Employment may well be the next driver of overheating inflation, causing a new flare up of...

  • Are we heading for recession?

    05.04.2022 22:23 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: Increasing numbers of investors are weighing up the likelihood of an imminent recession. These concerns may still be muted but they are unmistakeable, as we can see from trends in the Google search engine. Is this a serious worry at a time when economic growth forecasts remain very high for 2022 – at over 3% in Europe and the US based on the Bloomberg consensus – and very comfortable for 2023? Two issues, which...

  • No cause for panic... yet?

    30.03.2022 14:34 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: Inflation is at its highest level in decades. The US Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) is embarking on one of the most brutal cycles of monetary tightening in its history. War is raging in Eastern Europe. Oil is running at well over USD 100 per barrel. And yet equity markets are surprising calm, particularly in the US. The S&P 500 is just 5.5% off the historic highs reached at the end of December, having bounced by...

  • The end of free money in the US

    22.03.2022 22:08 - La Financière de l'Echiquier: With his announcement on Wednesday 16 March of the first rate hike since the end of 2018, Chair of the US Federal Reserve (the Fed), Jerome Powell, ended two years of zero interest rates. The exceptional regime of easy money rolled out to tackle COVID-19 had run its course. With an unemployment rate of 3.8% that is expected to fall again in March, the US job market is very close to full employment. The...

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