Swiss Franc Soft as Markets Relish Biden Victory, Coronavirus Vaccine News

Risk appetite reined over markets at the start of the week, driving investors towards riskier currencies and away from safer ones. Surprisingly, the US dollar did not fare that poorly, but the Swiss franc was clearly a victim of the risk-on market sentiment. The only major currency that performed even worse than the Swissie was the Japanese yen.
There were two major reasons for traders’ optimism today. One of them was the news that Democratic candidate Joe Biden seemingly won the US presidential election. While his opponent and incumbent President Donald Trump plans to legally challenge the outcome, news agencies were quick to announce Biden a new president, and leaders of other countries were piling in to congratulate Biden with the victory.
Another reason for the positive mood was the news that a COVID-19 vaccine is close to completion. Pfizer and BioNTech announced that the vaccine they are developing showed 90% efficiency. While further tests are still required, that brought huge relief to investors, who were scared about the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the global economy.
As for the news from Switzerland itself, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs reported that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.2% in October. Compared with the same month last year, unemployment climbed by 46.6%.
USD/CHF jumped from 0.8976 to 0.9125 as of 20:09 GMT today. EUR/CHF surged from 1.0669 to 1.0798. At the same time, CHF/JPY rose from 114.61 to 115.50, though it has retreated from the daily high of 116.10.
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