Stocks Fall as US Services Flash Warning Signals: Markets Wrap
(Bloomberg) — Stocks wiped out gains as a disappointing reading on US services raised concern about the outlook for Corporate America. Short-dated Treasuries underperformed ahead of a $58 billion sale of three-year notes, the first in a trio of auctions this week.
Chipmakers led losses in the S&P 500 just hours ahead of results from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Financial shares also got hit, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. sinking over 1.5%. President Donald Trump told CNBC US tariffs on semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports would be announced “within the next week or so.”
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“We expect further choppy trading to persist in the later stages of summer, especially as the path of interest-rate policy remains unknown and highly sensitive to incoming economic data,” said Chris Senyek at Wolfe Research.
The US services sector effectively stagnated in July as firms — faced with tepid demand and rising costs — reduced headcount. Data out last week showed weaker-than-expected jobs data while inflation-adjusted consumer spending barely rose.
“The ISM services survey highlights the challenges for the Fed in the coming months, with the activity and employment indicators weakening even as the prices paid index rose to a new cyclical high,” said Alexandra Brown at Capital Economics.
The biggest week of Treasury sales since May will see the US auctioning $125 billion of new three-, 10- and 30-year debt. The yield on 10-year bonds advanced one basis point to 4.20%, while those on two-year notes rose four basis points to 3.72%. The dollar fluctuated.
President Trump said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told him he did not want to be nominated to replace Jerome Powell as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. Trump also noted he was considering four candidates, but cautioned he didn’t intend to make the decision soon.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of services declined last month to 50.1, below all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The employment index contracted. The group’s measure of prices paid for materials and services climbed to the highest since October 2022.
To Ian Lyngen at BMO Capital Markets, the inflation component was more troubling.
“Nonetheless, the payrolls report has still paved the way for a September cut — leaving reflationary pressures as less immediately impactful on near-term monetary policy expectations,” he noted.
The latest labor data is weak enough for the Fed to justify cutting interest rates, said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Her firm’s base case remains that the US central bank will resume rate cuts at the September meeting, with a total of 100 basis points of easing by early 2026.
‘Sticky Inflation Signs’
“Traders are continuing to speculate on the time of the Fed’s next rate cuts with sticky inflation signs weighed against weakening economic indicators,” said Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and Forex.com.
He also noted the S&P 500 outlook could start to deteriorate in the near-term amid warnings over sky-high valuations against a backdrop of weakening economy.
“Should worries about overstretched valuations start to weigh on a few high-flying tech names, most of which have been supported by their latest earnings results, then the major indices could start to show bearish signs,” he said.
Fast-money investors will likely reach full exposure to US equities by September, which could prompt them to sell stocks as they become vulnerable to downside market shocks, according to Scott Rubner of Citadel Securities.
Systematic funds, which typically let factors such as volatility or momentum dictate their exposure to risk, have been piling into US stocks as indexes like the S&P 500 extend rebounds from April lows. But such funds will run out of firepower to buy equities by the end of August, noted Rubner.
The Fed could be poised to trigger a stock-market regime change that sees smaller companies perform better than megacap tech, according to a strategist at Jefferies.
Data going back to 1990 show that the S&P 500 Equal Weighted Index outperformed the traditional market-cap weighted version of the benchmark when the Fed is reducing interest rates, according to Andrew Greenebaum, senior vice president of equity research product management at Jefferies.
Meantime, HSBC strategists boosted their year-end target for the S&P 500 to 6,400 points from 5,600, citing robust corporate earnings and easing policy uncertainty.
“The AI trade is powering the tech/AI cohort higher, while reduced policy uncertainty (namely tariffs) is fueling the ‘rest’ of the market,” the team led by Nicole Inui wrote. “We have more confidence in the sustainability of the AI trade than further easing on policy uncertainty.”
Corporate Highlights:
Tesla Inc. continues to post steep sales declines in Europe’s biggest electric vehicle markets, where the Elon Musk-led automaker is ceding significant share to China’s BYD Co. President Donald Trump accused two of the nation’s largest banks of rejecting his business, following a report his administration was preparing an executive order threatening financial institutions who refused to do business on ideological grounds. Trump told CNBC he had been “informed by my people” that JPMorgan Chase & Co. had asked him to close accounts he held for decades within 20 days, and that Bank of America Corp. declined his attempt to deposit more than $1 billion with their company. Caterpillar Inc. reported lower-than-expected quarterly profit as the cost of tariffs and slightly lower prices eroded margins for the company’s iconic yellow diggers and bulldozers. Pfizer Inc. raised its profit forecast for the year with the drugmaker’s ongoing cost cuts helping to make up for a lack of sales growth. Marriott International Inc. reported second-quarter earnings that beat expectations as the company’s global footprint made up for softening US demand. Yum! Brands Inc.’s sales rose less than expected in the latest quarter after growth at Taco Bell and KFC was weaker than anticipated. Palantir Technologies Inc. reported a 48% increase in revenue for the second quarter to more than $1 billion, citing the “astonishing impact” of artificial intelligence technology on its business. Hims & Hers Health Inc., a telehealth company, missed second-quarter revenue estimates. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s experimental pain drug failed to benefit patients after surgery and US regulators said they didn’t see a path forward for broad use of its pill in treating a chronic pain condition. Alcon Inc. agreed to buy Staar Surgical Co. for about $1.5 billion, giving the Swiss eye-care firm access to a new vision-correction treatment. Molson Coors Beverage Co. lowered its full-year guidance for the second quarter in a row, citing continued pressure from a weak consumer, falling US market share and rising costs tied to aluminum tariffs. BP Plc said its new chairman will conduct a review of the entire portfolio and the company will seek to cut costs beyond current targets as it works to reverse years of poor performance. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. plans to gradually wind down the last of its Costco-like members-only stores, underscoring its retreat from a hyper-competitive Chinese retail arena. Taiwan prosecutors arrested six people suspected of stealing trade secrets from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., opening an investigation into a potential breach of national security involving a global tech industry linchpin. Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 fell 0.5% as of 12 p.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7% The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.1% The MSCI World Index fell 0.3% Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1579 The British pound rose 0.1% to $1.3304 The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 147.51 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin fell 1.7% to $112,829.64 Ether fell 3.7% to $3,564.41 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.20% Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.63% Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.52% The yield on 2-year Treasuries advanced four basis points to 3.72% The yield on 30-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.78% Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.5% to $65.29 a barrel Spot gold rose 0.5% to $3,389.75 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Switzerland’s US Tariff Blow Threatens Its Go-It-Alone Approach
(Bloomberg) — The two-minute video isn’t subtle. Wielding a medieval halberd, the president of the conservative Swiss People’s Party lays out the choice Switzerland faces: a simpler life that the country’s founders spelled out in a one-page declaration more than 700 years ago or a 2,000 page treaty with the European Union.
It’s a choice between “freedom and serfdom,” Marcel Dettling says before tossing the treaty documents onto a bonfire.
The trouble for Dettling and Switzerland’s other EU naysayers is that the alternative vision of a nimble nation trading freely with the rest of the world isn’t looking so good anymore. On the day the video was released — Aug. 1, Switzerland’s national day — the White House delivered a bombshell by announcing the country would face tariffs of 39% on all exports to the US, among the highest anywhere in the world.
President Karin Keller-Sutter is traveling to Washington on Tuesday as she and her colleagues race to get Donald Trump to reconsider. They don’t have much time, with the levies due to kick in on Thursday.
Helene Budliger-Artieda, one of the chief negotiators for Switzerland, held a phone call with business representatives on Monday. She told them that Switzerland’s main goal is to get the overall tariff number down, but didn’t reveal any potential concessions it might make, according to people briefed on the call.
Budliger also received a clear message from businesses: there’s no substitute for the US market.
EU Tension
While the Swiss try to figure out how to deal with Trump and the US, the episode has cast a new light on the country’s relationship with the EU. That’s long been a divisive issue, with arguments about trade and economic benefits clashing with concern about immigration and sovereignty.
For the pro-EU voices, the chaotic back and forth with the US will give them fresh reason to push the benefits of ties with the bloc, particularly as it secured a far better 15% rate.
“This will undoubtedly strengthen the camp of those who argue that Switzerland needs to move closer to the EU,” said Rene Schwok, a professor of political science at the University of Geneva. “Their argument is that the EU is a much more reliable partner than the US and China.”
Keller-Sutter and her officials had expressed confidence right up until late last week that they’d secured a far better deal with the US. But it all fell apart at the end during a phone call with Trump. Critics say she didn’t have anything to offer and came unprepared to the negotiation table.
The US president sees his country’s $39 billion trade deficit with Switzerland as tantamount to theft, and didn’t appreciate being told otherwise by Keller-Sutter.
“I don’t believe that the US is a reliable partner under this presidency,” Andri Silberschmidt, a Liberal lawmaker and member of Keller-Sutter’s party, told Bloomberg. “As a small nation, we are dependent on reliable partners who abide by agreements.”
Read more from Bloomberg Economics: Switzerland’s Tariff Troubles – and a Fix
Switzerland is in the midst of a separate debate on an agreement with the EU that it hammered out late last year and is due to go to a national vote. In a survey – conducted before Trump’s self-declared Liberation Day announcement on tariffs — 47% of Swiss respondents were in favor, while 35% were against it.
It’s not just the upending of global trade that is pushing the Swiss to rethink how it works with the EU. The director of the government agency responsible for military procurement said in June he’s seeking closer collaboration with European neighbors as global demand for weapons surges and the nation’s own defense industry falters.
Such ideas are among many in recent years that have angered Dettling and the Swiss People’s Party.
Switzerland’s decision to embrace EU sanctions on Russia shortly after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a watershed moment. The European Commission had urged Switzerland to follow its lead on punishing the Kremlin, noting that although not an EU member state, it’s still “part of Europe.” Switzerland took the hint.
Then last August, an independent panel recommended the government deepen military cooperation with the EU and Nato.
That prompted a backlash from Dettler’s party, which called it an attempt to “destroy Swiss neutrality.”
Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank, says the shift away from strict neutrality is a sign of the times.
“NATO might be a stretch, but this might push Swiss to pursue an even closer economic relationship with the EU,” he said.
Banking
All this is happening as Switzerland’s flagship financial-services sector is under pressure after the collapse of Credit Suisse, as well as growing competition from other financial hubs in Asia and the Middle East.
There have also been painful reforms in the wake of the collapse. These are seen as necessary by the government, but viewed by the one remaining first-tier lender, UBS Group AG, as so detrimental that it has considered moving its HQ out of the country.
To be sure, Switzerland’s low unemployment, low inflation economy is robust enough that it could withstand the 39% tariff hit. If pharmaceutical exports were included at the unchanged rate, this would translate to a hit of at least 0.7-percentage point hit to the economy, according to Hans Gersbach at KOF economic research institute in Zurich.
If drug exports were excluded, the hit would be between 0.3 and 0.6 percentage points. That would be a harsh blow but not enough to tip the economy into recession.
Still, that would jeopardize “tens of thousands of jobs” in key manufacturing industries, said Stefan Brupbacher, director of trade group Swissmem.
However Keller-Sutter’s last-minute bid in Washington works out, the lesson for Switzerland is that it needs to realize it’s not in the same league as the US, China or the EU but a small player.
This may push the Swiss to reconsider the advantages of “splendid isolation,” Kirkegaard said.
“When the elephants are dancing, the mice get trampled and that’s a little bit of what’s happened here.”
–With assistance from Bastian Benrath-Wright, Jeff Black, Paula Doenecke and Dylan Griffiths.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Mountaineer falls to his death on the Matterhorn
A mountaineer fell and died on the Matterhorn near Zermatt on Monday. The man, who has not yet been identified, was apparently travelling alone.
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The accident occurred on the ascent to the summit via the Hörnligrat ridge at the so-called Lower Red Tower at an altitude of around 4,150 metres, as the Valais public prosecutor’s office and the cantonal police announced on Tuesday. A third party immediately alerted the rescue services.
They travelled to the scene in an Air Zermatt helicopter. They were only able to determine that the mountaineer had died. The public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the accident.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Summer profile: Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director, Save the Children, Gaza
The pictures from Gaza of starving children and desperate struggles for food have shocked the world. In Geneva’s humanitarian community there is shock too, but no surprise.
Aid agencies have been warning for months that the trickle of aid – coming after a 10 week total blockade – allowed into the strip would trigger insecurity, possible violence and eventually, starvation.
Aid agencies have already seen enough shocking things to last a lifetime: the acronym WCNSF adopted by health workers as the bombing in Gaza intensified stands for Wounded Child, No Surviving Family. The grim statistic that just ten weeks into this war, 1,000 children had lost one or both legs.
International media are not allowed into Gaza, so the testimony of aid workers, who remain there despite the huge challenges, is very important. This week on Inside Geneva, we talk to Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save the Children, who has been working in Gaza since just after the conflict began.
Cummings started life as a nurse, in part because nursing was in her family, and she was attracted to professions which involved “empathy and communication”. But she also thought it might give her a chance to travel. She certainly wasn’t wrong about that.
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Inside Geneva’s Summer Profiles: Rachael Cummings in Gaza
From Cambodia to Sierra Leone
Trained in Britain’s national health service, her first foreign posting was as a nursing tutor in Cambodia. That, she told Inside Geneva “really opened my eyes to the humanitarian sector.” From there, in the immediate aftermath of the Asian tsunami in 2004, she went to Banda Aceh in Indonesia, “which was a massive, massive learning curve, but also instrumental in setting me on this path for humanitarian work,” although, she adds that she was “completely naïve” about the humanitarian system at the time.
Cummings stayed in Banda Aceh for a year and a half. The Asian tsunami was the biggest natural disaster in centuries. United Nations aid agencies mobilised quickly but it is now recognised that they were not as efficient and organised as they needed to be. Lessons were learned, and we can assume Rachael was no longer naïve by the time that year and a half was over.
Later postings included the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone, where Save the Children was tasked with setting up an 80 bed treatment centre. Cummings remembers that as “so outside of Save the Children’s comfort zone. We had not been providing frontline clinical care in infectious disease outbreak ever before.”
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Inside Geneva: the failed militarization of humanitarian relief in Gaza
But the centre was successfully built and that posting is one Cummings remains very proud of. Another was a posting to Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh in 2017. In the space of weeks, a million Rohingya Muslims fled violence in Myanmar, an event she describes as “biblical”. There, Save the Children created learning programmes, schools, and health centres.
The refugees have not been able to return home yet and Cummings takes comfort from the fact that “the foundations that we built, the health centres that we built, the learning, education, are all still functioning.”
External Content
Gaza
When the war in Gaza started, Cummings knew immediately that that is where she wanted to be. She admits that such situations bring out the best of her skills, “I know what I’m good at, I know where I become very energised and motivated, and it’s very much working in these environments.”
Save the Children, like all established aid agencies in Gaza, works within the UN system, and is dependent on the UN logistics cluster for the movement of its supplies. So when UN trucks are blocked, Save the Children’s supplies are blocked too. Nevertheless, Cummings and her team are running two primary health care centres in Gaza, 10 nutrition centres, providing education across 16 communities, and even trucking water to them.
“Our standards do not drop just because it’s hard,” she told me. “I always say, anything is possible in Gaza. It’s just bloody difficult.”
But she admits that, now it’s more difficult than ever. Cummings joined Inside Geneva from her office in Deir al Balah in central Gaza, which has become the hub for many aid agencies. Just days after I talked to her, Israel launched ground operations in Deir, the World Health Organisation’s premises were bombed, and according to the WHO, its “male staff and family members were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on the spot, and screened at gunpoint.”
Gaza is now the most dangerous place on earth to be an aid worker or a journalist. But it is also the most dangerous place on earth to be a child. They face constant displacement, bombing and now starvation. Cummings, who has a 10 year old son, says Gazans, watching their children go hungry will do anything to feed them.
“You have people who are being starved and on the brink of famine. So people are absolutely desperate, driving them to jump on the trucks and pull off the humanitarian supplies. And you know, I know I would do that myself.”
The only way to prevent the scenes which have finally caused global outrage, Cummings and all established aid agencies keep reminding us, is to let unlimited supplies into Gaza and hopefully, agree a ceasefire. If that happens, she says, the humanitarians, with their years of experience, can do their job.
“We are driven by humanity to others, and alleviating the suffering of children wherever that is,” she says. “To give children hope because they are living through their worst lives, through the most desperate of times, and of course they are innocent throughout it. They are children who have the right to a childhood.”
Check out the Inside Geneva podcast for the full conversation – it’s a great listen!
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UBS Draws Big Orders for Euro Bonds After Bumper Earnings
(Bloomberg) — UBS Group AG drew strong demand for a euro debt sale, days after raising dollar debt following better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
The Swiss lender pulled in combined orders for more than six times its €2 billion ($2.3 billion) sale of HoldCo debt due in six and 11 years, according to a person with knowledge of the sale, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Both notes can be called a year earlier than maturity.
Today’s deal follows its $2 billion offering of perpetual callable notes in the US market last week, split across two tranches. That sale also proved popular with investors, who placed orders of more than $16 billion across the two portions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The offerings come as the bank continues to manage its capital structure following its acquisition of Credit Suisse and as it posted second-quarter net income that beat average estimates, sending its shares to the highest since March, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The lender also signaled that future earnings should be supported by the prospect of cooling global trade tensions.
It drew more than €5.2 billion of orders for a €750 million six-year tranche, which will price at 87 basis points above midswaps and well inside initial price talk of about 120 basis points. Its €1.25 billion 11-year tranche attracted orders exceeding €7.3 billion, again allowing UBS to considerably cut the spread on offer to 115 basis points above swaps from an opening range of about 150 basis points.
The debt will be counted as part of UBS’s total loss-absorbing capacity, or TLAC, helping it to meet regulatory capital requirements. UBS Investment Bank, Commerzbank AG, Danske Bank A/S, DZ Bank and Swedbank AB are serving as bookrunners for the transaction, which is expected to price later on Tuesday.
Two other borrowers are also offering debt today. Wendel SE is set to price €500 million of eight-year notes, while DNB Bank ASA boosted the size of a floating-rate notes sale to €650 million from an initial €500 million, in what was its first public debt deal since May, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Issuer Profile
Debt distribution: UBSG SW Equity DDIS
Capital structure: UBSG SW Equity CAST
Related securities: UBSG SW Equity RELS
Ratings history: UBSG SW Equity CRPR
This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation
(Updates with final deal terms and order book details)
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
the Swiss government is scrambling to find a negotiated solution after the US announced tariffs of 39% on imports from Switzerland. President Karin Keller-Sutter and Economics Minister Guy Parmelin set off for the US today with this goal in mind.
I would also like to introduce you to two young Swiss Abroad who have travelled to Switzerland to complete military recruit school. Find out what motivates them.
Warm greetings from Bern
From August 7, Swiss exports to the US could be hit with a tariff rate of 39% . The Federal Council wants to negotiate this figure down and to this end, Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter and Economics Minister Guy Parmelin are travelling to the US today.
Following yesterday’s crisis meeting, the Federal Council issued a press release announcing “new approaches” aimed at reaching a trade agreement. The government apparently intends to achieve this by making a more attractive offer to the US. According to SRF, a small delegation is accompanying the two members of the government. Among them are the Helene Budliger Artieda, director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and Daniela Stoffel, State Secretary for International Financial Matters.
Swiss public broadcaster RSI spoke with Peter V. Kunz, a professor of business law, who thinks it is possible that the Federal Council could achieve an extension of 30 days for the implementation of the tariffs. Even though the Swiss benchmark index SMI made an upward countermovement after a weak start to the week, the situation remains tense.
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes that whether a solution more acceptable to Switzerland can be found by August 7 now depends on Keller-Sutter, Parmelin, Swiss diplomacy and the pharmaceutical bosses. In this context, Blick asks: “Will Roche and Novartis deliver the Trump miracle cure?”. It is possible that the Swiss pharmaceutical industry could tip the scales in the renegotiations.
They may live in France and Germany but two Swiss Abroad are completing military recruit school in Switzerland. What motivates them?
They stand out among other recruits because they are sent into the weekend in civilian clothes. Today, the Aargauer Zeitung profiles two young infantry recruits from France and Germany. However, young Swiss recruits abroad also come from more exotic locales like Sri Lanka, Panama and Réunion.
Both young men portrayed have a strong connection to their country of origin, as they work in Switzerland. But why do they do voluntary military service? Thomas Ganière from France hopes to gain maturity in the army. Samuel L. from Germany says he is doing his job to get to know his limits – “and to push them”.
With a wink, such recruits are referred to as “détachement touriste” in the barracks in Colombier, canton of Neuchâtel. According to the report, 80% of Swiss Abroad recruits come from neighbouring France, Germany, Italy and Austria. However, their number in the army is extremely small: in 2024, only 78 Swiss Abroad began recruit school.
The virus is harmless to humans but in France, entire herds of cows had to be slaughtered because of the nodular dermatosis. The Swiss border cantons have taken urgent measures against it.
It is enough for individual animals to become infected. Because of the highly contagious viral skin nodule disease, the entire herd then has to be slaughtered – much to the chagrin of the livestock breeders. In the French departments of Savoy and Haute-Savoie, hundreds of animals had to be slaughtered in an emergency.
This is to be prevented in Switzerland. As RTS Info and Watson.ch report, a programme is nearing completion in the canton of Valais to vaccinate over 2,000 cattle against the insidious disease, also known as “lumpy skin disease”.
In Geneva, which is even closer to the affected French departments, 90% of the approximately 1,100 cattle in the canton have already been vaccinated, as 20 Minutes reports. So far, not a single case of the disease has emerged. However, the vaccine only unfolds its full protective effect after 28 days, which is why caution is still advised .
Roaring engines and growling exhausts: the noise generated by so-called car posers annoys many. Despite pilot projects with noise radars, the project is stalling at the national level.
In the cantons of Basel-Country, Zurich and Geneva, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) has recently carried out tests with noise radars. Now several cantons and left-wing politicians are calling for such devices to be installed quickly and permanently, according to public broadcaster RTS.
However, the government reacted with a negative decision: the imposition of fines via such radars was not possible due to the lack of a federal legal basis.
According to RTS, the ball is currently in the court of the government, specifically Transport Minister Albert Rösti, who is called upon to enact laws that enable the effective use of such anti-noise radars.
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Summer profile: Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director, Save the Children, Gaza
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Inside Geneva’s Summer Profiles: Rachael Cummings in Gaza
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Switzerland in pictures
Safety first: Specialists use a helicopter to change the warning light spheres for the high-voltage line of the Airolo-Mettlen line in Erstfeld, canton of Uri.
More and more older people in Switzerland are using the Internet
In Switzerland, almost the entire population aged 14 and over is online. According to a study, the proportion of older people in particular who use the internet has increased significantly over the past three years.
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From the beginning of 2022 to the end of 2024, the proportion of pensioners who use the internet rose by 4.3 percentage points. Overall, 79.8% of people in this age group now use the internet, according to a study published on Tuesday by the advertising media research institute WEMF.
Overall – as at the end of March 2025 – almost 95% of people aged 14 and over used the internet.
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Longevity clinics: modern-day snake oil or the key to healthy ageing?
In addition to usage itself, the study also sheds light on which devices the Swiss population uses to go online. The smartphone is the undisputed leader here: 94.7% of all internet users use it.
And almost 85% of retired people also use their smartphone to access the internet today. Three years ago, the figure was 81%, according to the report.
Devices vary depending on age group
Overall, however, there were clear differences in the choice of devices used depending on the age group: among retired people, smartphones are followed primarily by permanently installed computers with a user share of 56.8%, closely followed by laptops or netbooks (56.6%) and tablet PCs (44.7%).
However, young adults aged 20 to 29 prefer laptops after smartphones, with a share of around 93%. This is followed by TVs or games consoles in this age group (66.2%).
Permanently installed computers are only used by around half of users in this age group. Meanwhile, tablet PCs are particularly popular among 40 to 49-year-olds. A total of 7,772 people were surveyed for the study between October 2024 and the end of March 2025.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.
Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.
If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at english@swissinfo.ch.
Swiss President Dashes to Washington in Effort to Sway Trump
(Bloomberg) — Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter is flying to Washington on Tuesday in a last-minute bid for a deal to lower the 39% tariff imposed last week by Donald Trump.
The trip is to “facilitate meetings with the US authorities at short notice and hold talks,” the government said in a statement. Underscoring the pressure the Swiss president is under at home, she is flying to DC without a formal invite from the White House to meet with Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Her office declined to comment on whom she plans to meet and what trade concessions she might bring before Thursday’s deadline to implement the levy. In an interview with CNBC that hinted at the challenge Keller-Sutter faces, Trump spoke about the last time they talked together in a call last week.
“The woman was nice, but she didn’t want to listen,” he said, highlighting the size of the US trade deficit with Switzerland. The country makes “a fortune” from pharmaceuticals, and tariffs on drugs will follow within the “next week or so,” he added.
Trump’s levy last week stunned the Swiss after talks that they thought looked promising. If the 39% tariff rate came into effect across the board — including on pharmaceuticals — that would put up to 1% of Switzerland’s economic output at risk over the medium term, according to Bloomberg Economics.
The paradox faced by Keller-Sutter and her Economy Minister, Guy Parmelin, is that any concessions may be politically costly without meaningfully curbing the trade deficit with the Swiss that Trump has criticized.
“Switzerland has to get creative,” said Stefan Legge, a trade policy researcher at St Gallen University.
Keller-Sutter’s shuttle diplomacy follows an emergency government meeting on Monday where ministers agreed to present a new offer to the US. Gold, agriculture, planes, drugs, and energy are just some areas that may feature in any talks. Here’s an overview of some concessions the Swiss could make.
Agricultural Tariffs
Switzerland abolished industrial tariffs in 2023, leaving levies on only 5% of its imports. The only area where the Swiss maintain tariffs is agriculture, motivated by a politically charged belief in self-reliance. Any concessions would surely infuriate farmers, who have previously pledged to “vehemently fight” any changes to the current regime.
While the political pain would be large, the win for Trump would be rather symbolic since agriculture amounts to a small fraction of the economy.
Gold
Trump’s aides claim that the US’s out-sized trade deficit with Switzerland is why the president imposed such high levies. In the first quarter, two thirds of the gap was due to shipments of bullion. That’s because of the price of the metal itself rather than any added value by Swiss refineries, which largely focus on resizing bars.
“Gold is special,” said Simon J. Evenett of IMD Business School in Lausanne. “It isn’t really manufactured in Switzerland. Processed is a better word.”
One fix could be a high tariff, say of 50%, just on gold, hitting refineries but with a limited wider economic fallout. Alternatively, handing over buillon trade to the central bank or another state institution could provide a justification for taking it out of statistics on both sides of the Atlantic. But it’s not clear if this would appease Trump.
Planes
Switzerland is currently buying 36 F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin Corp. for its air force, but has run into disagreements over the price.
According to the Swiss, a fixed price of 6 billion francs ($7.4 billion) was contractually agreed, which voters backed in a plebiscite, but the US now wants as much as $1.3 billion more to account for higher production costs and inflation.
Accepting the higher charge, and possibly symbolically ordering one or two more planes, could help convince Trump, given how arms purchases featured in his other trade deals. But voters might balk at that.
Drugs, Investments and Energy
One of Trump’s bugbears is over pharmaceuticals, where Switzerland specializes.
Novartis AG and Roche Holding AG have already announced plans to invest huge sums in the US over the next few years, and the Swiss government could pressure them to cut prices there too. While that might align with the interests of the companies themselves to to get out of Trump’s crosshairs, officials can’t actually force them to do so.
An easier approach could be to gather pledges for US investments by Swiss companies. Such a package could be combined with a pledge to buy US energy, in particular liquefied natural gas. While the landlocked country is focused on hydroelectric and nuclear power, it does use a small amount of gas, primarily in the winter.
“We could buy oil, arms and LNG and we could give concessions on agriculture and at least give our best endeavor to put pressure on Swiss pharmaceutical companies to lower prices,” said Thomas Borer, a former Swiss diplomat.
Something Else
Switzerland’s rude awakening in its diplomacy with Washington has forced officials to realize that winning over Trump himself is key, rather than talking to underlings.
So perhaps a gesture such as a present to charm the president could do the trick, said St Gallen’s Legge. He cited the example of the birth certificate of Trump’s German grandfather that Chancellor Friedrich Merz brought him in June.
“Maybe it would be best to give him a golden Swiss watch,” Legge said.
–With assistance from Hugo Miller, Dylan Griffiths, Jan-Henrik Förster and Annmarie Hordern.
(Updates with Trump in fourth paragraph)
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Swiss hotel industry on track to break 2024 record for overnight stays
The momentum of tourism in Switzerland continued in June with a new increase in overnight stays. At the half-year mark, the hotel industry is on track to break the record set in 2024.
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According to figures released today by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), overnight stays in June rose year-on-year by 1.8% to 4.15 million. This is not a surprise, as estimates published in recent weeks had already anticipated such a trend.
The percentage increase was particularly pronounced in the case of Swiss guests, who posted +3.0% to 1.89 million nights. For their part, foreign guests recorded an increase of 0.9% to 2.26 million compared to June 2024.
In detail, the most numerous tourists were Americans (477,411), ahead of Germans (353,943) and Brits (149,727). The French (110,322) and Italians (66,157) completed the top five.
At the regional level, Ticino recorded 284,623 overnight stays in June, i.e. an increase of 4.2% on an annual basis. The strongest growth, however, was in Graubünden (+11.8% to 387,286). A positive trend can be observed for all areas under consideration, except for the Zurich, Bern and Geneva regions.
So far, with the exception of February (-2.8%), the Swiss hotel industry has recorded an increase in overnight stays in every month in 2025: in January by 3.5%, in March by 0.3%, in April by 4.4% and in May by 1.7%.
Overall, tourists from abroad contributed 10.4 million nights in the first half of the year, a growth of 3.0%. Domestic demand (10.0 million), on the other hand, fell slightly (-0.3%) in the twelve-month comparison.
Looking at the first six months, overnight stays (20.4 million) grew by 1.4% compared to the same period in 2024. There is therefore every chance of surpassing last year’s record of 42.8 million overnight stays.
Translated from Italian by DeepL/jdp
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