(Updates to confirm White House nomination, adds details)
WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - John Snow, the rail mogul tapped by the White House on Monday to slip into the driver's seat at the Treasury Department, goes into the job loaded with political and corporate credentials.
Adept on Capitol Hill and in the boardroom, he still must prove to a skeptical Wall Street there is a real difference between himself and the man he will replace -- Paul O'Neill, another former industrialist forced from the job last week.
Analysts on Monday were more struck by the similarities between the two than their differences. Even their ages, Snow at 63 and O'Neill 67, did more to imply to Wall Streeters that it was hard to see how the new Treasury chief represented a move toward a defter hand with investors.
"I just think he has a little less hair than O'Neill," said economist Richard Yamarone of Argus Research Corp. in New York, who said Snow, whose appointment must still be confirmed by the Senate, came "out of the blue" to a Wall Street that saw O'Neill as honest but too blunt-spoken for his own good.
FACES MARKET TESTING
The question is whether Snow can do what President George W. Bush concluded O'Neill could not -- keep financial markets calm while pushing the administration's tax-cutting tonic for making the world's largest economy a stronger job-creating machine in the runup to 2004 presidential elections.
In that respect, analysts said Snow seemed an unusual choice on the face of it since there was little to suggest he represented a dramatic shift in policy presentation. Nor does he bring to the job especially different qualifications.
"I think what they're trying to find now is not so much a leader but a talking head and that's what's gone into this process," Yamarone said. "He's an industrialist, a CEO, a former Ford administration expert -- what's the difference?"
The key difference apparently was that felt Snow has the finesse and commitment to sell a new economic stimulus plan to lawmakers that O'Neill lacked. Republicans and Democrats alike on Capitol Hill smarted under O'Neill's tart tongue and Wall Streeters took offense early on to his remark that he could learn traders' jobs in a matter of two weeks.
Snow will be under scrutiny to see whether he can spread oil on waters left troubled by his feisty predecessor.
"O'Neill didn't blend in very well," said economist Carol Stone of Nomura Securities International Inc. in New York. "This guy sounds like he has a better facility for that role as a consensus builder."
Snow, a lawyer and economist, helped build CSX into the biggest rail operator in the Eastern United States after serving stints in the former Ford administration in the mid-1970s as an assistant secretary and under secretary at the Transportation Department.
Among his other affiliations, which include directorships in several other companies including Verizon and Johnson & Johnson, Snow has chaired the Business Roundtable, a powerful association of executives who lead top U.S. corporations.
SOUNDS LIKE O'NEILL
Even Snow's business background carries echoes of O'Neill's, rooted in old-line industries. O'Neill headed aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. before he took over Treasury. Each brought modern technology to his company.
But since Snow became chairman of CSX in January 1991, his company's shares have lagged significantly behind his top competitors in the U.S. rail business. In nearly a dozen years with Snow at the helm, CSX shares have risen only about 7 percent versus a 60 percent increase for the Standard & Poor's railroads index (^GSPRAIL - News).
Since peaking above $62 a share in July 1997, when Snow was engineering a carve-up of Conrail only completed in 1999, CSX shares have lost more than 50 percent of their value.
Democrats on Capitol Hill, who called for O'Neill's head, trod carefully on Monday as they assessed Snow, praising him as an individual while preserving their fire for a stimulus package expected to be presented to Congress in January.
"I think it is encouraging that the president is reaching out to people of experience," Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle said. "But it isn't the names, but the plan, that is of concern to us. Trickle-down economics doesn't work."
In a brief appearance at the White House with Bush, Snow took no questions, simply lauding the administration's ability to maneuver out of a short and shallow recession in the first three quarters of last year back to growth in 2002.
But Snow agreed with Bush that more had to be done to boost activity, thus drawing a line between himself and O'Neill, who often appeared complacent about prospects ahead.
"I strongly share your view that we cannot be satisfied until everyone, every single person, who's not employed and (is) seeking a job has an opportunity to work," Snow said.
MUTE ON DOLLAR POLICY
Snow was silent on a key issue faced by every Treasury secretary -- his stand on whether he favors a strong dollar.
Traders, uncertain about the future of U.S. currency policy under a new guardian, sent the U.S. dollar lower after sources said Snow was expected to be Treasury chief. O'Neill's lack of clarity on the currency often left financial markets muddled.
Currency policy is a key issue for financial markets at a time when the United States is running huge trade deficits and considering tax cuts that O'Neill had expressed concern could send budget deficits sharply higher.
Like O'Neill, Snow has publicly stressed the importance of ethical behavior in the boardroom. He has been serving as co-chairman of a Conference Board blue-ribbon commission on corporate governance.
The Toledo, Ohio, native did his undergraduate studies at the University of Ohio before completing a doctorate in economics at the University of Virginia in the mid-1960s, later earning a law degree from George Washington University.
After launching his business career in the late 1970s, Snow established himself as a titan of industry and was no stranger to complex deals in his leadership of CSX.
Business Week magazine credited him with helping turn around CSX in a 1992 article titled "The Corporate Elite: Masters of the Game." It noted that he did so by selling off non-transportation related assets and sharply cutting staff.
"John W. Snow has bitten his share of bullets," the article said. Snow may need that ability in abundance at Treasury.