Good chance Trump may unveil Fed pick by Christmas, Bessent says

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday he was concluding a second round of interviews later in the day for a new U.S. Federal Reserve leader, and there was a good chance President Donald Trump would announce his pick before Christmas.

Bessent has narrowed the search for a successor to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose leadership term expires in May, to five from as many as 11, and said in an interview with CNBC the latest interviews have focused on how the candidates would guide what has become a “very complicated operation.”

“So we’re going to have the last interview in the second round today …We got five very strong candidates,” Bessent said.

“I think that there’s a very good chance that the president will make an announcement before Christmas,” Bessent said. “But it’s his prerogative, whether it’s the, before the Christmas holidays, and the New Year’s. But things are moving along very well.”

The remaining candidates include White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett; former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh; current governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, who is also the vice chair for supervision; and Rick Rieder, Blackrock’s chief investment officer for global fixed income.

Online betting markets Kalshi and Polymarket see a neck-and-neck race between Hassett and Waller, whose prospects were seen improving sharply this week after he said he’d had a good second interview with Bessent.

“I talked to Scott about 10 days ago. We had a nice, a great, meeting,” Waller said Monday on the Fox Business Mornings with Maria show. “I think they are looking for someone who has merit, experience, and knows what they are doing in the job, and I think I fit that.”

(Reporting by Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Chizu Nomiyama )