From oil to crypto, AI chips to interest rates, these are the 13 policymakers that matter in the markets

From MarketWatch

Here are the regulators, central bankers and Cabinet members on the MarketWatch 50 list that are keeping traders and investors losing sleep

When she was confirmed by the Senate in a close vote in 2022 to an unexpired term, Fed Governor Lisa Cook became the first Black woman to have a seat at the Federal Reserve table since its founding in 1913.

A few months later, in 2023, lawmakers made Cook’s job more permanent by confirming her a full 14-year term after President Joe Biden renominated her.

This new term makes Cook a leader of the progressive movement in financial markets and draws attention to areas her research has highlighted, including income inequality, poverty and other economic concerns of working-class Americans that often struggle to gain central bank attention . A former economics professor at Michigan State University, Cook held roles in the Obama, Bush and Clinton administrations, but her current role will be her most influential yet.

Cook is one of 13 policymakers on the MarketWatch 50 list of the most influential people in markets. From regulators to central bankers to Cabinet members, these are the government officials who are watching CEOs, traders and investors most closely. Your actions can affect the prices of stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities and even cryptocurrencies.

Kazuo Ueda begins his five-year term at the helm of the Bank of Japan in April 2023 and faces the difficult task of dismantling Japan’s long-standing ultra-loose monetary policies, including the controversial yield curve control program, without triggering chaos in Japanese and global financial markets. Investors around the world are worried about the prospect of the world losing its last anchor to ultra-low interest rates. They were caught off guard in September 2023 when Ueda said that the Bank of Japan could have enough data by the end of the year to determine whether the Japanese central bank can end negative interest rates. Such a move would mark the end of an era for both Japan and global financial markets.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Hafize Gaye Erkan, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, are the other central bankers on this year’s MarketWatch list.

The US Secretary of Commerce is usually not an official market participant, which is a point of concern for many. But Gina Raimondo changed that. Antagonism toward China is one of the few issues in Washington that can garner bipartisan support. This dynamic has led to a flurry of legislative and regulatory efforts that have raised Raimondo’s profile. Her department was tasked with implementing the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which provided nearly $300 billion in spending to fund domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing in the country. Construction spending in the U.S. doubled last year and are reaching an annual rate of $190 billion, driven by investments in high-end manufacturing facilities from companies like Intel (INTC), TSMC (TW:2330) and Micron (MU).

Raimondo also oversees a $50 billion program to expand broadband across America. She is also tasked with overseeing China’s trade policy amid bipartisan calls for higher tariffs and new restrictions on foreign investment into China. In October 2023, Raimondo announced that the United States would limit the export of artificial intelligence chips to China. That left investors somewhat upset about the financial outlook for Nvidia, the leading AI chip maker.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler intensified his regulator’s crackdown on Bitcoin (BTCUSD) and the cryptocurrency industry in 2023 by filing lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase (COIN), the world’s two largest digital asset exchanges by trading volume . The SEC alleges that the two companies operate unregistered securities exchanges in the United States. However, Binance and Coinbase say they are not violating securities regulations. The agency’s lawyers have also argued that several high-profile tokens, including Solana and Cardano, are unregistered securities, which also puts their issuers at risk of legal problems.

Gensler’s cryptocurrency battle has faced some legal setbacks, such as a federal appeals court overturning the SEC’s decision to reject Grayscale Investment’s application to set up a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Gensler is simultaneously pushing forward the most fundamental market structure reform measures in a generation, including a proposal that would force stockbrokers to subject retail orders to a new auction process, potentially upending the business models of wholesalers like Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial (VIRT).

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget; and Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan are other U.S. government officials who made the MarketWatch list this year. In particular, as the U.S. budget deficit widens, Yellen’s credit decisions and her willingness to issue longer-term debt rather than notes in the face of rising yields are becoming increasingly important in global markets.

Of course, policymakers don’t always work in government. In 2023, after criticizing previous union leadership and being elected head of the Teamsters, Sean O’Brien negotiated on behalf of 340,000 workers with UPS (UPS), the nation’s largest trucking company. O’Brien used social media and tough language to secure a deal with UPS that was widely viewed as a major union victory. UPS drivers will earn an average of $170,000 per year in salary and benefits at the end of the five-year contract. The agreement marked a new period of organized labor activity and strength in America. Nevertheless, O’Brien also suffered a setback at Yellow, where his negotiating positions were blamed by management for the listed company’s collapse. He is now focused on unionizing more than a million workers at Amazon.

Shawn Fain is another union leader on the MarketWatch list. In 2023, Fain initiated the UAW strike at GM (GM), Ford (F), and Jeep maker Stellantis (STLA), with a series of walkouts and strikes involving 146,000 hourly workers. Fain, a passionate activist, called for much higher wages, cost-of-living adjustments and medical benefits for retirees as companies made large investments in new technologies. He described the strike as a fight for workers to share in the enormous profits of American corporations. In October 2023, the UAW reached agreements with the three Detroit automakers, but the strike could benefit Tesla (TSLA) if those agreements undermine the Detroit automakers’ efforts to compete in the electric vehicle market.

Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s powerful energy minister, is not afraid to cause a stir. He openly provoked speculators and initiated a voluntary cut in oil production of 1 million barrels per day in the summer of 2023, which was seen as the main reason for the recovery in crude oil and US gasoline prices. Brent crude oil prices reached $90 a barrel in September 2023 before falling to a recent $80. Amid international condemnation of Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, he touted close cooperation with Russia as part of a “whatever it takes” approach to supporting oil prices. At the same time, he criticized the financial media and reportedly took an increasingly autocratic stance toward Saudi Arabia’s role as de facto leader of OPEC. As the Middle East finds itself once again embroiled in conflict, its actions are being watched even more closely.

-Market observation

This content was created by MarketWatch, operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11/23/1623ET

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.