Sources: Geithner to be treasury secretary

President-elect Barack Obama picked Timothy Geithner, head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to be his Treasury secretary, with Lawrence Summers getting a senior White House role, a Democratic aide told Bloomberg News.

Bloomberg attributed the earlier news report of Geithner's selection for the stock market's surge late in the session.

Bloomberg also said Obama is likely to nominate New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary.

Geithner has helped lead U.S. efforts to combat the deepest financial crisis in seven decades, helping oversee the decisions this year to intervene in American International Group Inc., rescue Bear Stearns Cos. and leave Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to fail. Summers was Bill Clinton¹s last Treasury secretary, and is now a professor at Harvard University.

Geithner, 47, is also a veteran of the Treasury, where he served as an undersecretary for Summers.