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Supervisor Bilal Mahmood is expected to unveil two ballot measures for November that would create a fund to support grocery stores and impose taxes on chain corporations.

Fed Holds Rates Unchanged (As Expected), 'Dots' Signal Hawkish Bias As Warsh Takes Over

Tl;dr: No rate change (as expected) but a dramatically hawkish shift in The Fed's bias (9 members seeing at least one hike this year). Statement smilled down dramatically, also biases towards hawkish focus on price stability (inflation) over employment: "The Committee will deliver price stability".

“The market is focused on the dot plot for now, with half the committee thinking there will be hikes. The bear flattening seems reasonable based on that. Those who looked for a quiet first Warsh FOMC meeting must be disappointed.” - BBG rates strategist Ira Jersey

*  *  *

Since the last FOMC meeting (Jay Powell's final one as Fed Chair) on April 29th, markets have shifted sharply with oil plunging (along with weakness in gold and bitcoin) while stocks have rallied sharply (shrugging off a brief dip) with bonds unchanged and the dollar modestly stronger...

The US macro-economic data has surprised considerably to the upside since the last FOMC (with strong 'hard' and 'soft' data and the labor market showing significant resilience)...

With both Growth and Inflation signals rising (a dilemma for The Fed)...

Additionally, the market has shifted significantly more hawkish since the last FOMC (still pricing cuts) and obviously dramatically more hawkish since the start of the war...

But this Fed meeting is different as Kevin Warsh takes the mantle from Jay Powell (who remains on the board) as Fed Chair with the key risk for markets is that expectations for a dovish Warsh have become elevated.

So What Did The Fed Do?

The Fed left rates unchanged as expected:

• FED HOLDS BENCHMARK RATE IN 3.5%-3.75% RANGE IN UNANIMOUS VOTE

• NO DISSENTS

And the statement was dramatically shortened, entirely dropping paragraph 4:

• FED REMOVES STATEMENT REFERENCE TO ADDITIONAL RATE ADJUSTMENTS

No forward guidance in the statement

Read the full red-line below:

Balance Sheet

The Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday adjusted the language of its policy implementation note to reflect that it instructs the Open Market Desk at the New York Fed to increase its purchases of Treasury bills “when appropriate.”

• According to the implementation note FOMC instructed, “When appropriate, increase the System Open Market Account holdings of securities through purchases of Treasury bills and, if needed, other Treasury securities with remaining maturities of 3 years or less to maintain an ample level of reserves”

• That compares with the April memo, which said: “Increase the System Open Market Account holdings of securities through purchases of Treasury bills and, if needed, other Treasury securities with remaining maturities of 3 years or less to maintain an ample level of reserves”

The 'Dots'

The 'Dots' are clearly signaling an end to the 'easing bias' of the prior Fed: with nine members seeing at least one rate hike this year:

2026 dot distribution changes:

• 3 rate-hikes: from 0 to 1

• 2 rate-hikes: from 0 to 5

• 1 rate-hike: from 0 to 3

• No rate change: from 7 to 8

• 1 rate cut: from 7 to 1

• 2 rate cuts: from 2 to 0

• 3 rate cuts: from 2 to 0

• 4 rate-cuts: from 1 (Stephen Miran) to 0

Only 18 of 19 officials submitted their 'dots' with some suggesting Warsh himself did not contribute

Could this be the last time we see the 'Dots' (with Warsh's notable rejection of forward guidance)?

Economic Projections

The new inflation forecasts are really not good.

Core PCE is seen rising 3.3% this year, well above the 2.7% penciled in back in March.

That means no disinflation from right now, because the most recent core inflation reading was indeed 3.3%.

But, the median forecast of those submitting projections shows inflation slowing to 2.5% next year, but still notably up on 2.2% last time.

Growth is also seen slowing...

...but unemployment improving

All eyes now on Warsh's first press conference as Fed Chair which is likely to be the most important event risk of the meeting.

Will Trump react to the lack of a rate-cut?

Will be ironic if Trump fires Warsh before EOD after he doesn't cut

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 17, 2026

 

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/17/2026 - 15:50

The eye-catching 281 Park Avenue South, the 42,500-square-foot Beaux-Arts landmark once known as the Church Missions House, has entered contract.

Struggling Queens-based carrier said it is shifting resources to booming South Florida in its latest bid to restore profitability.

Crypto Scammers Using Couriers To Collect Cash, Avoid Detection: FBI

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Crypto scammers are using couriers to pick up cash from victims in person to avoid being traced by banks, the FBI is warning.

The fraudsters first approach targets, typically seniors, with business or romantic proposals via social media, texts, or a fake cryptocurrency investment profile, the bureau said in a June 15 public service announcement alert.

“After establishing a relationship with the victim, the scammer suggests investing in cryptocurrency and instructs the victim to download specific cryptocurrency trading applications and create investment accounts.”

Typically, victims are asked to send wire transfers to various domestic and international bank accounts under the guise of deposit accounts.

They get access to websites showing fictitious returns on investment, which entices them to deposit even more money.

Legitimate financial institutions often flag such transfers as suspicious and block them. To bypass this, scammers are instructing victims to hand over money to fake investment accounts via in-person cash pickups.

The victims are led to believe the money they send will be deposited into their investment accounts.

“Once the cash pickup occurs and the courier departs, victims can see an increase in deposits in their virtual wallet displayed on their account with the scammer’s investment platform,” the FBI said.

“When the victim attempts to withdraw their perceived profits, scammers will begin the loop over by forcing the victim to pay fraudulent taxes and penalties, again using couriers for cash pickups to perpetrate the fraud.”

In 2024 the FBI issued an alert about couriers being used by scammers who had convinced their victims into liquidating their assets into cash or precious metals.

The fraudsters, posing as tech support or government officials, would insist such an action was necessary to protect the target’s funds because their financial accounts were hacked or at risk of being hacked.

In its latest alert, the FBI advised people to protect their personal information, such as banking details, and to never meet with unknown individuals to hand over cash or other valuables as part of any investment scheme.

“Beware of ‘love bombing,’ a social manipulation technique employed by online scammers and other malicious actors wherein a victim is quickly showered with praise, attention, and manipulated to feel trust and intimacy with a person prior to having their lowered guard exploited by a scam or other malicious behavior,” the agency said.

According to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report, published in April, the agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 181,565 complaints regarding various cryptocurrency schemes last year, up 21 percent from 2024.

Losses from these complaints totaled over $11.36 billion. The average loss was $62,604, and 18,589 people lost more than $100,000 each.

The largest group of complaints filed were made by people over the age of 60. They also suffered the highest losses, totaling more than $4.43 billion.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/17/2026 - 15:45

"The final deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and other provisions of this paragraph."

The "SICKOMODE" rapper attended the pre-opening of the Big Apple outpost of the iconic Ibiza-born nightlife brand last Friday night.

The "SICKOMODE" rapper attended the pre-opening of the Big Apple outpost of the iconic Ibiza-born nightlife brand last Friday night.

Democrat Politicians Seethe After Baseball Players "Deface" Pride Night With Bible Verses

Recently we reported on the MLB's angry response to three San Francisco Giants players who scribbled bible verses across their "Pride Night" uniforms in a silent protest.  The incident takes place in the midst of a rising tide of popular opposition to the woke movement's political authoritarianism.  Gay pride has become synonymous with the liberal "cry-bully":  Activists who try to assert social dominance over others then play the victim when people fight back.

California State Senator and rabid gay activist Scott Wiener is the epitome of a typical woke cry-bully.  He is perhaps best known as an advocate for the "kink community" and his defense of gender treatments (hormones and sex change surgeries) for children.  He is also a militant supporter of sexualized LGBT propaganda in public schools. 

Wiener has criticized medical facilities that refuse to give gender bending treatments to people under 19 years of age and supported measures to make California a "transgender safe haven".

It's therefore not surprising that Wiener is enraged by anything Christian or biblical entering his big gay domain, and he had a lot to say about the Giant's players who defiled his precious Pride Night. 

Senator Wiener on MAGA Homophobic Backlash Against Major League Baseball:

“On San Francisco Giants Pride Night — also the tenth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre — several players defaced their Pride caps with a biblical passage that has been hijacked by homophobes to…

— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) June 16, 2026

“On San Francisco Giants Pride Night — also the tenth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre — several players defaced their Pride caps with a biblical passage that has been hijacked by homophobes to ‘take back’ the rainbow from LGBTQ people. The players could have displayed this passage any night of the year but chose to do it only on Pride Night.

The Giants, sadly, took no action in response, which is inconsistent with the Giants’ longstanding support for our LGBTQ community. Major League Baseball then warned the players that MLB rules bar defacement of uniforms. The Giants should publicly commit to enforcing rules around uniform defacement and should not effectively create a homophobia exemption to those rules..."

The state senator acts as if the players broke some kind of law.  Baseball club rules are private business arrangements, not statutes that require the the frantic complaints of a homosexual Karen.  That said, Wiener's response to this event is quite revealing. 

Biblical scripture references are not "defacement", at least not of anything sacred.  But to Wiener, the act is the same as if someone burned a Bible or a Koran.  The woke seething over such a minor thing makes it clear that the LGBT movement is not a civil rights movement; that ended decades ago.  Today, the LGBT movement is a political supremacy movement, and prominent athletes have every right to openly oppose it.  

The pride event featured a number of LGBT promotions, including 10 same-sex married couples renewing their vows before the first pitch (what this has to do with baseball is unclear).  Interestingly, the crowd turnout for Pride Night games has been crashing in the past couple years.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors member and Democrat Matt Dorsey, who is openly gay and claims to be a "person of faith", complained on social media about the bible verses.  He called the incident “disappointing in several respects” and he views the players as “problematically undisciplined".  He asserts that professional athletes’ uniforms are not a “canvas for individual self-expression - especially about politics.”   

This issue is, of course, a matter between the players and their employers, not a matter of politics.  However, the woke movement, which is now in decline, views their takeover of American sports as a particularly important coup.  The traditionally masculine industry is now a platform to spread gay Marxist gender theory.  No one would have believed it a couple decades ago, and the political left is desperate not to lose ground in this arena of the culture war. 

D-backs pitcher Ryan Thompson, who is a proclaimed Christian, spoke on the MLB warning SF Giants players who wrote Bible verses on Pride Night caps:

"I think there's a perceived negativity with this stuff. Landen Roupp wrote a verse on his hat that means he's anti something.… pic.twitter.com/SFFJARW6v6

— Blake Niemann (@Blakes_Take2) June 17, 2026

At bottom, leftists view American culture as a series of platforms to be targeted and co-opted.  They were wildly successful for around a decade, but things are changing rapidly now that the general public is aware of the agenda.  Activist politicians like Wiener are angry about a bible verse on a baseball cap because, to them, this is a symbol of their shrinking power over the common discourse. 

The notion of a political movement rooted in forcing the populace to celebrate the aberrant sexual hobbies of its members is not winning the hearts and minds of anyone.  It's doing the opposite.   

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/17/2026 - 15:25

Wednesday was more like it for the rookie right-hander, who threw strikes, allowing him to match his longest start of the season in the Mets’ 9-1 victory over the Reds at Great American Ball Park.

The Knicks' pride is seen beaming out of Madison Square Garden as it looms behind the soon-to-be improved Penn Station.

Corentin Moutet handled one of tennis’ biggest serves. The post-match interview was a little messier. The Frenchman left the crowd laughing at Queen’s Club after swearing seven times in less than a minute during his on-court interview following a 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5) win over fellow Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. France’s Corentin Moutet. Queen’s is one...

The WNBA's rapid growth has taken another step.

New details of serial killer Rex Heuermann's sick torture routine inside his basement "kill room" was too much for one relative of his helpless victims to bare.

First Iranian Oil Moves Past US Blockade Ahead Of Deal Signing

By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

Iran’s first observed crude oil exports in two months have moved past the US blockade outside the Strait of Hormuz in a sign that Iran is wasting no time to take advantage of the tentative deal with the United States.

Following the announcement of the deal this weekend, and ahead of a formal signing ceremony expected in Switzerland on Friday, at least three Iranian crude oil tankers have exited the Strait of Hormuz and departed from the region moving past the U.S. blockade so far this week, tanker-tracking firms have said.

TankerTrackers.com has estimated through AIS data corroborated by satellite imagery that at least two supertankers of the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) have moved through the U.S. blockade. The very large crude carriers (VLCCs), named Diona and Hero2, have kade perimeter carrying a combined total of 3.8 million barrels of Iranian crude oil between them, TankerTrackers.com said.

“These are Iran's first crude oil exports in two months,” the ship-tracking service said.

BREAKING: CRUDE OIL DEPARTS IRAN FOLLOWING A TWO MONTH LONG NAVY BLOCKADE

According to AIS data which we corroborated yesterday (2026-06-15) by satellite imagery, at least two National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) VLCC supertankers named DIONA (9569695) and HERO2 (9362073) have… pic.twitter.com/tSesQTcC6K

— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) June 16, 2026

Another tanker of the National Iranian Tanker Company, the Stream, is approaching the U.S. blockade line from the exclusive economic zone of Pakistan, where she spent the past 7 weeks waiting to enter Iran, according to TankerTrackers.com.

Kpler has observed a third Iran-linked tanker carrying 1 million barrels of Iranian crude that exited the blockade line on Wednesday.

“Iran is wasting no time getting its tankers back into circulation,” said Michelle Wiese Bockmann, senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward.

The VLCC Dan of the NITC has left the area near the Riau archipelago where it has been dark since May 23 and is now heading to Iran for loading, Bockmann added.

The Iranian oil tanker traffic is intensifying, with the deal that would launch 60-day negotiations set to be signed in Geneva on Friday. In addition, Iran is preparing to take advantage of the U.S. allowing Iranian oil sales immediately upon signing of the agreement. Under the agreement expected to formally end the war between the United States and Iran, Tehran will be allowed to immediately resume oil and fuel sales, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the details of the deal.

Tyler Durden Wed, 06/17/2026 - 15:05

Jessie Mei Li stars in the HK-produced, English-language thriller.

Bet $20, get $350 in bonus bets with the Fanatics Sportsbook promo code NYPOST.

“Without action now, millions more are expected to face worsening levels of hunger in the months ahead,” World Food Program Acting Executive Director Carl Skau said.

Diamondbacks reliever Ryan Thompson has become one of the latest voices to weigh in on the growing controversy surrounding the Giants and Major League Baseball’s response to players displaying Bible verses during Pride Night. The debate began after Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker wrote “Gen 9:12-16” on their rainbow-themed Pride Night...

“I have a therapist now and a psychiatrist, which has been really helpful when I got my bipolar disorder diagnosis," the "Old Town Road" singer shared.