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Scott Bessent says he’s not worried about the stock market’s ‘healthy correction,’ insisting the Trump administration is only trying to avoid an even bigger financial crisis

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  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was not worried about the stock market, as the S&P 500 faced its first market correction since 2023 last week. Bessent said “corrections are healthy,” adding the Trump administration’s policies, largely seen as driving market uncertainty, are necessary for long-term sustainability. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is not worried about the first stock-market correction since 2023, and he says it’s actually “healthy” to have a downturn now to avoid a crisis later.

The S&P 500, which tracks the broader market, fell into a correction last week by dropping 10% from the all-time-high it set earlier this year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq and Dow Jones also fell on March 13, before all three major indexes closed up on Friday.

Still, Bessent in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” said there were “no guarantees” there won’t be a recession. He said he wasn’t worried about stock-market swings and added a downturn now could be a positive in the long term. 

“I’ve been in the investment business for 35 years, and I can tell you that corrections are healthy. They’re normal,” he told NBC. “What’s not healthy is straight up, that you get these euphoric markets. That’s how you get a financial crisis. It would have been much healthier if someone had put the brakes on in ’06, ’07. We wouldn’t have had the problems in ’08.”

Bessent’s comments come as the Trump administration’s policies on tariffs and DOGE efficiencies, including mass layoffs and spending cuts, rattle investor confidence. Since the Fed is unlikely to make major changes to its stance on interest rates at this week’s FOMC meeting, a clear message from the administration could be key to reversing the falling market, according to a note by Goldman Sachs analysts.

“If the Administration were to give a clear message that they were prepared to adjust policy to support the economy or that they would prioritize more growth-friendly parts of their agenda, that could provide more immediate relief,” the analysts wrote.

It’s unclear if the Trump administration is willing to stray from its tariff policy, which has seen it impose a broad 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports that sparked reciprocal tariffs from countries like Canada. Despite the falling market, though, Trump and his officials like Bessent seem unbothered by the prospect of an extended downturn. 

In Trump’s first month in office, spending decreased but it still outweighed revenue, with the federal deficit increasing $307 billion in February, up 3.7% year-over-year. Bessent told NBC that had the U.S. remained at its large spending levels, it would have a guaranteed financial crisis. He added the Trump administration’s recent actions are necessary to prevent a future crisis.

“We are resetting, and we are putting things on a sustainable path,” he told NBC.

Despite the recent market setback, analysts at Evercore still see the S&P 500 skyrocketing to 6,800 from its current 5,690 by the end of 2025. Yet, in the worst case, slowing GDP growth of 1.5% and core inflation above 3% may bring on a period of stagflation that could see the S&P 500 collapse to 5,200—even lower than the 5,700 level it recorded when Trump was elected in November. 

“A material move below 5,700 without reprieve from Washington signals Trump is less concerned  with stocks, more concerned with Radical Change regardless of the asset market fallout,” the Evercore analysts wrote.

For now, Bessent shook off any fears of a long-term shock to markets and said he believed the Trump administration would win over Americans with its policies.

“I’m not worried about the markets. Over the long term, if we put good tax policy in place, deregulation and energy security, the markets will do great,” Bessent said. “I say that one week does not the market make.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Trump-backed World Liberty Financial raises $550 million in WLFI token sales

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World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance platform backed by President Donald Trump, announced this week that it has raised a total of $550 million in a series of token sales.

“This milestone proves that those who truly understand crypto and finance recognize what we’re building—and that WLFI is on track to supercharge DeFi as it transforms global finance in the coming years,” Zach Witkoff, cofounder of World Liberty Financial, said in a statement earlier this week. 

The company sold $300 and $250 million worth of Ethereum, Bitcoin, Tron, Ondo, Sui, and other cryptocurrencies. The purchases are part of its strategic token reserve which “helps strengthen leading cryptocurrency projects while providing stability to its treasury through diversification before ultimate disposition,” the company said in a statement. 

World Liberty Financial also says it has “established key relationships” with major players in the crypto space including other decentralized finance platforms like ONDO Finance, Sui, and Aave. Justin Sun, the founder of Tron blockchain, has invested $75 million in World Liberty Financial since Trump’s election in November. 

“The token sales are just the beginning,” Witkoff said in a statement this week. “We’re gearing up to launch a wave of disruptive technology that will redefine the boundaries of what’s possible with digital assets.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called GTC a Super Bowl where there are no losers — then he tackled concerns about China’s DeepSeek

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  • Jensen Huang reaffirmed Nvidia’s starring role in the AI industry during a keynote address at Nvidia’s annual GTC conference on Tuesday. Through its new open-source software, Huang showed how Nvidia can ramp up DeepSeek R1’s efficiency 30-fold. Yet, while he spoke, Nvidia’s stock price dropped more than 3%—after the company announced its GPU timelines.

Clad in his signature black leather, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang took center stage at Nvidia GTC on Tuesday, defending the chip maker’s dominance in the industry and touting the impact it could have on DeepSeek. 

The event drew more than 25,000 people to the SAP Center’s National Hockey League arena, and Huang opened the keynote by launching t-shirts into the crowd and coronating this year’s GTC the “Super Bowl of AI.”

“The only difference is everybody wins at this Super Bowl, everybody’s a winner,” he joked. And like the Super Bowl, there were GTC watch parties and packed crowds to get a glimpse of Huang on stage. 

With his address, Huang sought to dispel any uneasiness around AI investment, and said discussion about lower spending does not concern Nvidia. In January, apprehension engulfed the chip maker after it lost $589 billion in market cap in a single day after Chinese AI reasoning model Deepseek R1 claimed to operate at a fraction of the cost. 

While large language models offer foundational knowledge, reasoning models offer more complex, analytical responses. Using the company’s new open source software Nvidia Dynamo, Huang said the tech giant’s Blackwell chips will be able to make DeepSeek R1 30 times faster. He then played a video demonstrating for the crowd how it could be done.

“Dynamo can capture that benefit and deliver 30 times more performance in the same number of GPUs in the same architecture for reasoning models like DeepSeek,” said Ian Buck, vice president and general manager of Nvidia’s hyperscale and HPC computing business.

From there, Huang’s keynote covered everything from the chip maker’s plans to roll out its newest chips— Blackwell Ultra later this year, Vera Rubin in 2026, and Feynman in 2027.

“We have an annual rhythm of roadmaps that has been laid out for you,” Huang said.

While Nvidia’s announced its strategic runway for years to come, that wasn’t enough to stop the stock’s slide. The chip maker’s share price tumbled 3.4% Tuesday.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Cathie Wood says most memecoins will end up ‘worthless’

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Most of the so-called memecoins that are flooding the $2.6 trillion cryptocurrency space will probably end up “worthless,” according to Cathie Wood. 

The combination of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence is creating “millions” of meme cryptocurrencies that “are not going to be worth very much,” the ARK Investment Managment LLC founder and CEO told Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, adding that her private funds are not putting money into these coins. 

Memecoins are a type of digital asset often inspired by jokes, current events or trends in popular culture. In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said memecoins are not considered securities so they will remain unregulated.

“If I have one message for those listening who are buying memecoins: buyer beware,” said Wood. “There’s nothing like losing money for people to learn, and they’ll learn that the SEC and regulators are not taking responsibility for these memecoins.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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