After a seemingly unstoppable surge higher for years, March was a tough one for tech stocks, as the curtain was lifted exposing Oz-like machinations behind the scenes that spooked investors enough to pop the bubble of delusion so many were living in.
After a magnificent 2017, Cryptocurrencies also started 2018 off poorly as yet another ‘bubble’ popped.
However, there was one ‘asset’ that had a tremendous 2017, and has gone on to greater and bubblier things in 2018.
Spot the real bubble in financial markets…
Bitcoin has bust, FANG stocks are FUBAR, but The SNB is accelerating.
As we noted previously, The SNB made 32 times more than 85 Swiss private banks… and owns a record $100 billion-plus of American stocks…
As we noted previously- That’s the US dollar amount of American stocks the Swiss National Bank owns on behalf of every man, woman and child in Switzerland.
Let that sink in.
A Central Bank has taken on itself to expand its balance sheet and invest in the proceeds, not in gold, nor sovereign debt – heck not even in corporate bonds. Nope, the SNB has taken it upon itself to “invest” that money in another country’s most risky part of the capital structure – equity.
And don’t think it’s a small number. It’s almost $100 billion US dollars.
In a strange twist of fate, the Swiss National Bank is not only Switzerland’s Central Bank, but also a publicly traded security.
And that ‘security’ has had a great year so far – up a stunning 93%…
However, as Holger Zschaepitz notes, the market cap of the Swiss National Bank remains below CHF1bn amidst a profit of CHF54.4bn.
But that didn’t stop investors piling into The SNB in March as a ‘safe haven’ as the rest of the world collapsed…
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