Dow jumps as Trumps Treasury pick Scott Bessent promises to slash taxes, spending
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 400 points on Monday after President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, laid out his priorities – including tax cuts.In his first interview as Treasury nominee with The Wall Street Journal, Bessent said he will also focus on imposing tariffs, cutting spending and keeping the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.By Monday afternoon, the Dow was up 0.9% and the S&P 500 was up 0.3% following the news.The longtime hedge fund manager said he is focused on making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, as well as eliminating taxes on tips, social security benefits and overtime pay.“Bessent himself is a very prominent investor and has a stellar track record which makes him a great choice, and the markets are responding to the excitement about how they think he will handle fiscal policy and interest rates,” Ted Jenkin, co-founder and business consultant at oXYGen Financial, told The Post. On Friday, Trump nominated the seasoned hedge fund manager, who has studied economic history for around 40 years, as US Treasury Secretary.That’s despite protests from Elon Musk, who donated millions to Trump campaign efforts and rallied in swing states on the president-elect’s behalf.Musk had dogged Bessent as a “business-as-usual choice,” and threw his support behind Howard Lutnick, who Trump ended up nominating to head the Commerce Department instead.Investors and Wall Street bigwigs have largely applauded the nomination of Bessent, who worked at George Soros’ firm before starting his own, because he is seen as the “moderate” choice, Mahoney Asset Management CEO Ken Mahoney said.Trump has ruffled feathers with some of his controversial nominations, including Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr.to lead the health department, former Rep.
Matt Gaetz as attorney general and former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense.“Disruption is the goal when it comes to ripping ...