Currency markets grapple with Hassett’s rise as Fed chair candidate, along with UK budget chaos
Currencies are trading on a mixed footing this morning as investors pivot from expecting some Federal Reserve easing to anticipating too much. The dollar slumped, equity markets rallied, and yield curves shifted in yesterday’s session when Bloomberg reported that Kevin Hassett had become the front-runner in the race to replace Jerome Powell at the head of the world’s most powerful central bank. Hassett—now heading the National Economic Council and once a senior Fed official—is regarded as a capable economist, but also as someone more inclined to heed the president’s call for lower rates, even at the risk of stoking longer-term...