Ella 
USD/CHF attracted some sellers around 0.9102 during early European trading on Thursday. The Swiss franc (CHF) rose following a stronger-than-expected report on Switzerland’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter of 2024. USD/CHF fell 0.32% on the day.
The Swiss economy continued to expand in the first quarter, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) revealed on Thursday. Switzerland’s first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.5% month-on-month. The figure was better than expected and the previous value of 0.3%. On an annualized basis, Switzerland’s first-quarter GDP grew 0.6% month-on-month, higher than the consensus estimate of 0.5%. The upbeat GDP data provided some support to the Swiss franc and dragged USD/CHF to a one-week low.
In addition, Switzerland’s trade surplus increased to $4.316 billion in April from $3.767 billion in March, the Swiss Federal Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) announced in a report on Thursday.
Apart from this, rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East could boost safe-haven assets such as the Swiss franc (CHF). On Wednesday, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that the Israeli military announced that it had taken control of the strategically important buffer zone of the Gaza-Egypt border, the Philadelphia Corridor, thereby controlling Gaza’s entire land border.
On the dollar side, hawkish messages from Federal Reserve officials and stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data have raised expectations that the U.S. central bank will delay rate cuts this year. On Wednesday, Atlanta Fed Chairman Bostic said he hopes that the upward price pressures that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic will decline next year. Bostic also said that the Fed still has a long way to go to curb the sharp price increases that have occurred in the past few years.
