Scott Bessent Says He’s Surprised By Strength Of Fed Chair Candidates: Report

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly said on Wednesday that he is surprised by the strength of some of the candidates for the position of Federal Reserve Chair.

In an interview with Fox Business, Bessent also stated that he aims to complete the first round of interviews for Fed Chair candidates by the first week of October.

"Everyone asks me what am I looking for when I interview potential Federal Reserve chairs, and it's just someone with an open mind, who's not looking in the rearview mirror, who's looking forward," Bessent said in the interview.

Bessent expressed surprise that the Fed has not yet set a target to lower the policy rate by 100 or 150 basis points. This comes after Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday said that there is a “challenging situation” facing the central bank and that there are no risk-free paths ahead.

“Near-term risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks to employment to the downside — a challenging situation. Two-sided risks mean that there is no risk-free path,” Powell said.

Meanwhile, U.S. equities edged lower in Wednesday morning’s trade. At the time of writing, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, was down 0.03%, while the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) fell 0.12%. Retail sentiment around the S&P 500 ETF on Stocktwits was in the ‘bullish’ territory.

The iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF) was down 0.17% at the time of writing.

Also See: Jerome Powell Sees ‘Challenging Situation’ Ahead, Says There Is No Risk-Free Path

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