USD\/CHF rose to about 0.7890 in early European trade on Friday, as the US Dollar recovered after a sharp fall the day before. The move came as the US Dollar Index (DXY) was up 0.3% at around 99.45. <\/p>\n
Market pricing points to the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates unchanged through the year. CME FedWatch shows nearly 72% odds that rates will be held steady or remain above the current 3.50%\u20133.75% range at the December meeting. <\/p>\n
The Swiss Franc remained sensitive to possible action by the Swiss National Bank to limit fast gains in the currency. The SNB left its policy rate unchanged at 0% on Thursday and stated it was ready to intervene in foreign exchange markets to curb rapid Swiss Franc appreciation.<\/p>\n
We remember looking at the market in 2025 when USD\/CHF was struggling below 0.7900. At that time, the discussion was about the Federal Reserve holding rates around 3.75% while the Swiss National Bank was at zero. That environment suggested the SNB would have to actively fight to weaken the franc.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to today, March 20, 2026, and the picture is dramatically different with the pair now trading near 0.9150. The Fed has since held rates firm in the 4.75%-5.00% range, while the SNB has brought its own policy rate up to 1.50%. This significant policy divergence is the main reason for the dollar’s sustained strength against the franc.<\/p>\n
The dollar’s position is reinforced by a resilient US economy, with the last jobs report showing a solid gain of over 250,000 positions. US inflation, while lower than its peak, remains stubbornly above target at 2.8%, giving the Fed very little room to consider rate cuts. This backdrop makes strategies that benefit from a stable or rising dollar attractive.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the SNB’s old promise to intervene against franc appreciation, a major theme in 2025, is no longer a factor. With Switzerland’s own inflation recently surprising to the upside at 1.9%, the central bank is now more focused on price stability than on actively weakening its currency. This removes a major headwind that previously capped USD\/CHF gains.<\/p>\n
Given this environment, traders should anticipate that volatility may increase as markets price in continued policy differences. A sensible approach in the coming weeks would be to use options to position for further, gradual USD\/CHF strength, perhaps by buying call spreads. This allows participation in potential upside while defining the risk if the economic data were to suddenly shift.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" USD\/CHF climbed near 0.7890 as dollar rebounded; Fed seen steady, SNB ready to curb franc gains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":{"acf_article_selection_author":null},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarkets.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}