WASHINGTON -- New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner is expected to be President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Treasury Department. Reports of his selection sent stocks soaring at the close of trading Friday.

The anticipated nomination, which the financial cable channel CNBC and The Wall Street Journal reported shortly before the New York Stock Exchange's closing bell, sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly 500 points, or 6.5 percent, in the final hour of trading after two days of steep declines.

Obama's transition team and the Federal Reserve declined to confirm that Geithner had been offered and accepted the post, but neither made any attempt to knock down the reports. Obama now is expected to name his full economic team before Thanksgiving.

Geithner, 47, has worked at Treasury for two decades. He joined Treasury in 1988 and climbed the ranks, topping out as undersecretary for international finance from 1999 to 2001. Since 2003, he's headed the New York Fed, one of the most powerful yet little known federal regulatory posts.

''Tim is a great choice because he brings to the job intelligence, a wealth of experience in crisis management, deep knowledge of everything that has been going on in the last year, and an ability to listen and learn,'' Alan Blinder, a former Fed vice-chairman and now a Princeton University economist, told McClatchy. ``The struggles that any new secretary of the Treasury would face are legion. Tim is coming in down five runs in the eighth inning.''

The president-elect has been under pressure to start rolling out his Cabinet picks in the face of continued turmoil on Wall Street and stepped-up speculation and leaks.

On another Cabinet front, a spokesman for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton said Friday that reports that she had definitively been offered and accepted the post of secretary of state were ''premature.'' But he said that discussions were ``very much on track.''

Although he hasn't formally announced any Cabinet choices, Obama is believed to have selected Eric Holder as his attorney general and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota as secretary of health and human services.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is also close to being named secretary of commerce, though that decision is still under review, according to insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to disclose the information. Richardson, who like Clinton was an Obama rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, was secretary of energy and U.N. ambassador under President Bill Clinton.

The Republican National Committee wasn't impressed.

''Apparently, Washington outsiders need not apply in the Obama administration. Barack Obama's Cabinet is starting to resemble a Clinton reunion. His appointments so far have been a disappointment for Americans hoping to see some fresh faces in Washington. Obama promised a less political White House, but his new chief of staff and political director could not be more partisan. Earlier this month, voters demanded change, but so far Obama is only offering more of the same,'' said Alex Conant, an RNC spokesman, in a statement.

Amid all the Cabinet buzz, the Obamas also reached an important family decision: where their daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, will attend school in Washington. The family chose the private Sidwell Friends School, which Chelsea Clinton attended when her father was president, the transition office announced.

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