Market Voices: Bessent on rates, Goldman Sachs vs. Trump, Bullish IPO

Seeking Alpha’s roundup of statements, announcements and remarks that could impact markets, sectors or individual stocks.

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent encouraged the Federal Reserve to drop interest rates by at least 1.5%, adding that the central bank should begin with a 0.5% rate cut in September, according to Bloomberg.

“I think we could go into a series of rate cuts here, starting with a 50 basis-point rate cut in September,” Bessent told Bloomberg TV, adding, “we should probably be 150, 175 basis points lower.”

• Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) economist David Mericle said the bank is standing by its recently published outlook that consumers are just beginning to feel the impact of higher tariffs. Trump blasted the bank and its outlook in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.

“We stand by the results of this study,” Mericle told CNBC on Wednesday. “If the most recent tariffs, like the April tariff, follow the same pattern that we’ve seen with those earliest February tariffs, then eventually, by the fall, we estimate that consumers would bear about two-thirds of the cost.”

• Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), which owns CoinDesk and is backed by Peter Theil, priced its IPO above its expected range to raise around $1.11 billion.

The Cayman Islands-based crypto company said it priced 30 million shares at $37 per share. Underwriters were granted a 30-day option to buy up to 4.5 million additional shares at the IPO price, according to a statement.

Bullish (NYSE:BLSH) said in an SEC filing earlier this month that it was expecting to offer 30 million shares priced between $32 and $33 per share.

Shares of Bullish are expected to begin trading on NYSE under the symbol BLSH on Wednesday.