Investing.com — Wall Street is set for a muted start Friday, but the main averages are on course to register a positive week. Bitcoin nears an important threshold, while the debate continues over who will fill the role as Treasury Secretary in the new Trump administration..
1. Warsh to become Treasury Secretary?
The search for the person to fill the role of Treasury Secretary in the new Trump administration continues, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that President-elect Donald Trump has floated the idea of appointing Kevin Warsh as Treasury Secretary on the understanding that he could later be Federal Reserve Chairman.
Warsh is a former investment banker who served on the Federal Reserve Board from 2006 to 2011, and currently lectures at Stanford.
No announcement has been made by Trump, and the likes of Marc Rowan, who co-founded Apollo Global Management (NYSE:), US Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Robert Lighthizer, who served as Trump’s U.S. trade representative for essentially the then-president’s entire term, are also considered to be in the running for the role.
“The relevance of the pick for financial markets will probably be how the US Treasury market reacts,” analysts at ING said, in a note.
“A candidate with proven reliability will be well-received by the bond markets, while those with less experience – or perhaps a candidate that will offer less of a counterweight to some of President-elect Trump’s plans – could see the long end of the US Treasury market sell-off and perhaps even soften the dollar too.”
Trump announced late Thursday that his new pick for attorney general is Pam Bondi, who previously served as Florida’s attorney general.
The announcement came just hours after his controversial first selection, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration.
2. Futures set for muted start
US stock futures traded in a muted fashion Friday, at the end of a broadly positive week on Wall Street.
By 03:50 ET (08:50 GMT), the contract was up 40 points, or 0.1%, climbed 2 points, or 0.1%, and fell by 12 points, or 0.1%.
The main benchmarks closed higher Thursday, helped by Nvidia (NASDAQ:), the world’s most valuable listed company, posting gains after an earnings beat.
The is on course to record gains of 1% this week, while the is 1.3% higher and the up 1.6%.
Investors will study the preliminary purchasing managers index reports for November, while both Gap (NYSE:) and Intuit (NASDAQ:) will also be in the…
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