Market Voices: Bessent clarifies Fed comments, pharma tariffs, Target

[FED federal reserve of USA sybol and sign.]
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_Seeking Alpha's roundup of statements, announcements and remarks that could impact markets, sectors or individual stocks. _

* Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified on Thursday that he wasn't pushing the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by 1.5% but rather suggesting that such a decrease would bring rates down to a "neutral" level.

The secretary's comments come a day after he suggested [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4484808-market-voices-bessent-on-rates-goldman-sachs-vs-trump-bullish-ipo] the Fed should implement a series of cuts that would eventually lower rates by around 1.5%.

"I didn't tell the Fed what to do. What I said was that to get to a neutral rate on interest, that would be an approximately 150 basis point cut. I did not call for them to get there," Bessent told Fox Business on Thursday [https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-pushes-back-claims-hes-pressuring-fed-slash-rates].

"The other thing that I said was that perhaps because they had bad BLS data in June and July that perhaps, perhaps, a 50 basis point cut in September was warranted," Bessent added.

* White House senior trade advisor Peter Navarro said the administration is looking to impose higher tariffs on pharmaceuticals under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 [https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF13006#:~:text=Under%20Sec.,also%20self%2Dinitiate%20an%20investigation.], citing national security concerns about the U.S. supply chain.

In an interview with CNBC on Thursday [https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/08/14/white-house-sr-trade-counselor-peter-navarro-global-supply-chains-are-fragile.html], Navarro said that it was "very clear that we have a national security crisis" due to U.S. reliance on prescription drug imports.

* Target (NYSE:TGT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/TGT]) and Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/ULTA]) are ending a partnership that saw the opening of more than 600 Ulta mini-shops in Target stores.

The companies said they've decided not to renew their partnership agreement, which is slated to end in August 2026. The Ulta shops will remain open in Target stores until then.

"We look forward to what’s ahead and remain committed to offering the beauty experience consumers have come to expect from Target – one centered on an exciting mix of beauty brands with continuous newness, all at an unbeatable value," said Target Chief Commercial Officer Rick Gomez, in a statement [https://seekingalpha.com/pr/20201226-ulta-beauty-and-target-announce-plans-to-conclude-partnership-in-2026].

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