By Heard Editors
Wall Street on Monday applauded Trump's choice for Treasury Secretary and his "3-3-3" plan.
Hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent will be Trump's choice to head up the administration's most important economic role. Bessent "has long been worried about the U.S.'s heavy debt and thinks the main way it can be reduced is by boosting growth," the Wall Street Journal wrote on Monday.
Bessent's 3-3-3 economic plan calls for spurring 3% annual GDP growth through deregulation (it was growing at a healthy 2.8% clip already in the third quarter), reducing the federal budget deficit to 3% of GDP from more than 6% last year and increasing domestic oil production by the equivalent of 3 million barrels a day.
Critics may contend that the plan is short of specifics on how exactly to hit these threes. As a trio of Heard on the Street columnists argued over the weekend, achieving deregulation is often easier said than done, as many rule changes can get caught up in bureaucracy and the courts.
Nonetheless, investors seemed pleased on Monday with Bessent's big-picture focus on the debt and growth. Many had fretted that Trump's aggressive tax cut plans would lead to soaring deficits. Treasury yields fell sharply on Monday as bond prices rallied. The benchmark yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes fell 0.147 percentage point to 4.262%, bringing it back to around where it was trading before the election.
Stocks posted gains as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 440 points, or nearly 1%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both rose 0.3%.
Macy's had a mixed day of news. On the one hand, it delayed its quarterly results after the company discovered that an employee had hidden up to $154 million in delivery expenses over several years, prompting an investigation. But it also scored a three-bagger of its own: The Wall Street Journal reported that it and NBC are nearing a deal to triple the annual fee for broadcasting rights to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, from $20 million to $60 million. Macy's stock ended down 2.2%.
This analysis comes from the Journal's Heard on the Street team. Subscribe to their free daily afternoon newsletter here.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 25, 2024 18:06 ET (23:06 GMT)
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