Scott Bessent speaks at the National Conservative Conference in Washington D.C., Wednesday, July 10, 2024. Dominic Gwinn | Afp | Getty ImagesFinancial markets on Monday welcomed President-elect Donald Trump's pick for U.S. Treasury secretary, with currencies across the globe rallying on hopes that hedge fund manager Scott Bessent can take some of the sting out of Trump's more extreme economic views. "Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary has swelled investor sentiment further with stocks on Wall Street looking set for another flurry of gains," Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said in a research note. While many economists are skeptical about the effectiveness of tariffs, Bessent has defended them as "a useful tool for achieving the president's foreign policy objectives." Some strategists expect Trump's Treasury chief pick to be welcomed as good news for Asian currencies over the coming months.

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