Just days before their final 2025 rate decision, Switzerland threw the central bank (SNB) a curveball. Consumer prices came in UNCHANGED in November from a year ago. That's ZERO inflation. What does this mean for money managers and global markets? 📌 The Core Dilemma: Core inflation slid to its weakest in over four years. The SNB's 0.4% inflation forecast for this quarter is now officially dead in the water. 📌Negative Rates... Again? No yet. While the headline number is scary, it's unlikely the SNB will panic-cut rates back into negative territory next week. The market's real focus is the 2026 Inflation Forecast. Will the SNB slash its current 0.55% projection? That’s the real tell. 📌The Franc's Resilience: Despite the low inflation and fears of negative interest rates ahead, the CHF (Swiss Franc) is shrugging it off and staying strong. The SNB might wish for a weaker currency to "kindle" inflation via intervention, but we continue to think the Franc is UNLIKELY to weaken much and will rather remain strong. The Bottom Line: Low inflation is back in the spotlight for the safe haven currency. Watch the SNB's forward guidance, not just their rate decision Source: Bloomberg

The AI race just got a lot hotter, and the early leader is feeling the heat. 🔥 OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared a "code red" to completely refocus the company's efforts on its flagship product, ChatGPT. Here's the critical breakdown you need to know: The Threat: Rivals like Google (Gemini 3) and Anthropic (Opus 4.5) have recently leapfrogged OpenAI's GPT-5 on key industry benchmark tests. The lead is shrinking FAST. The Fix: A "surge" effort is underway to significantly improve speed, reliability, and personalization of ChatGPT. The Sacrifice: OpenAI is delaying other ambitious projects—like AI agents for shopping/health, advertising products, and personalized news (Pulse)—to dedicate resources to the core chatbot. The Stakes: This is a "critical time" for the $500bn start-up, grappling with intense competition, soaring data center costs, and the non-stop battle for top AI talent. Stats That Matter: ChatGPT still has a dominant market share with over 800 million weekly users. BUT, users are now spending more time chatting with Google's Gemini than with ChatGPT (per Similarweb data). ChatGPT already accounts for roughly 10% of global search activity and is growing quickly. The Bottom Line: The AI frontier is moving at warp speed. As Google integrates its powerful, bespoke-chip-trained Gemini 3 models immediately, OpenAI is forced to pause future innovations to defend its core product. The fight for the AI crown is officially on! Who do you think wins this high-stakes race? 👇 Source: FT

'Surges in Googling do a much better job than valuations at forecasting an imminent fall as the chart’s third column shows. In each case the price of the stock, basket, fund or cryptocurrency dropped considerably over the 12 months following the peak in internet searches.' 'Naturally, such observations do not constitute a rigorous study. There will have been many instances of internet traffic concerning popular investments spiking with no subsequent fall in prices. In fact, searches for 'AI stocks' hit their zenith in mid-August and their prices continued to rise serenely for weeks.' https://lnkd.in/epm6nUdP Source: MastersInvest.com, The Economist