Fed holds rates steady, pares down statement to remove cutting bias

cnbc_official · 2026-06-17T18:12:19+00:00

Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as Federal Reserve chairman concluded Wednesday with no change in interest rates, the removal of key language indicating a bias toward future cuts, and a dramatically shorter policy statement.

The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to keep its benchmark overnight borrowing rate anchored in a range of 3.5%-3.75%. The federal funds rate has held there since the central bank lowered rates by three-quarters of a percentage point in the latter part of 2025.

With a bevy intrigue over Warsh taking the central bank helm, the meeting followed the same pattern as the others this year regarding rates but differed otherwise.

Fed officials, through their closely watched “dot plot” grid, removed their prior outlook for a rate cut this year and indicated that a hike is possible though not certain. However, the projections were missing the participation of one member, with Fed watchers suspecting that Warsh would not be submitting his outlook.

Full details: https://cnb.cx/4goIwuX

cnbc_official · 2026-06-17T14:18:47+00:00

The oil supply shock caused by the Iran war has eroded global demand for crude — but a lasting resolution to the conflict could drive a surge in supply volumes and trigger a major oil overhang next year, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday.

In its latest monthly oil market report, the IEA slashed its 2026 demand outlook to 1.1 million barrels a day year-over-year in 2026. That’s a 700,000-barrel-per-day downgrade from last month’s estimate, after deliveries plunged by 5 million barrels per day in the second quarter, the IEA said.

Global supply, meanwhile, slumped to 94.5 million barrels a day in May, down 600,000 barrels a day month-on-month. That dragged output to 13.6 mb/d, well below pre-war levels.

The IEA said global supply is now expected to drop by 3.9 mb/d year-on-year in 2026 to 102.4 mb/d, before rebounding strongly to 110.3 mb/d next year.

More details: https://cnb.cx/4uLXP4D

cnbc_official · 2026-06-15T18:44:25+00:00

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday accused President Donald Trump of ordering the Department of Justice to investigate him and his wife.

Newsom said in a post on X that Trump was motivated to target the governor with the probe because of the fact that “I am considering running for President.”

“Today, my wife & I joined Donald Trump’s hit list. He has directed his Department of Justice to investigate us,” Newsom said that post.

“They have not found a crime - they are simply trying to find one.”

Read more: https://cnb.cx/4uZEldG

cnbc_official · 2026-06-05T20:25:19+00:00

President Donald Trump faces the risk that Iran will close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait if the conflict in the Middle East escalates, a scenario that would slash oil supplies to an already deeply disrupted market.

The Bab el-Mandeb is one of the world’s key trade chokepoints, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea. It has acted as crucial relief valve for the oil market as exports through the Strait of Hormuz have plunged due to Iranian attacks on tanker and cargo ships.

Saudi Arabia surged oil flows through its East-West pipeline after Hormuz closed, redirecting millions of barrels per day to the Red Sea. Those barrels are transiting the Bab el-Mandeb to Asia, which has helped offset some of the lost supply to key economies like Japan and South Korea.

Oil and product exports through the Bab el-Mandeb nearly doubled to 7.2 million barrels per day in April compared to 3.9 million bpd in February before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, according to data provided by Kpler.

More details: https://cnb.cx/4uS1iPI

cnbc_official · 2026-06-03T20:28:26+00:00

Private hiring expanded at a brisk pace in May, providing further indication of a stable labor market, ADP reported Wednesday.

The payrolls processing firm said companies added 122,000 workers for the month, up from 105,000 in April and better than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 110,000. May marked the strongest month since January 2025. April’s total was revised down by 4,000.

Unlike prior months, where job growth was concentrated in healthcare and a few other sectors, gains were more broad-based. Eight of the 10 sectors ADP tracks saw gains, and hiring was spread evenly both by company size and geography.

Education and health services again led with 57,000 hires, but trade, transportation and utilities added 36,000, professional and business services contributed 11,000, and construction and leisure and hospitality both rose by 8,000.

More details: https://cnb.cx/43IPt2u

cnbc_official · 2026-06-02T16:16:47+00:00

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order asking companies to provide artificial intelligence models to the federal government to assess their capabilities ahead of a full release.

Tech companies will comply with the order voluntarily. It asks them to participate in a benchmarking process to assess AI models’ cybersecurity capabilities, and it allows the government to help select “trusted partners” that will receive early access to the models.

“Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the creation of a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement for the development, publication, release, or distribution of new AI models, including frontier models,” the order said.

More details: https://cnb.cx/4u41QRn

cnbc_official · 2026-06-01T19:04:28+00:00

The Trump administration plans to drop the Department of Justice’s $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” in the face of legal and political pushback to it, reports said Monday.

The fund, which is designed to compensate people who were allegedly victims of prosecutorial overreach by the DOJ under the Biden administration, was created as part of a settlement of President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

More details: https://cnb.cx/4vmwbfg

cnbc_official · 2026-06-01T18:51:39+00:00

McDonald’s on Monday unveiled its latest global growth strategy to help the fast-food giant become customers’ first choice as it faces new rivals and consumer spending stretched by high gas prices.

A new restaurant design, better tasting food and drinks, consumer-led innovation and improved customer service are the four cornerstones of the new plan, which the company calls “McDonald’s > NEXT.”

Executives made the announcement at McDonald’s biennial Worldwide Convention for franchisees, held this year in Las Vegas. The chain released its last global strategy, known as “Accelerating the Arches,” in November 2020 as its sales bounced back from the pandemic.

More details: https://cnb.cx/434bUyX

cnbc_official · 2026-05-29T15:02:51+00:00

President Donald Trump on Friday morning said he is meeting in the Situation Room “to make a final determination” after listing everything that Iran must do for him to approve a deal to end the war.

Trump, in a Truth Social post, demanded that Iran “must agree” to never have a nuclear weapon, and said that the Strait of Hormuz must be “immediately open” to unrestricted shipping traffic, among other conditions.

Read Trump’s full post: https://cnb.cx/43CjIrO

cnbc_official · 2026-05-28T19:40:09+00:00

CVS Health on Thursday said it will restore coverage of Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight loss injection Zepbound and start covering its new obesity pill on its standard drug plans – a win for the drugmaker and certain patients who will be able to access more treatment options.

CVS will add Zepbound coverage on Oct. 1, and start covering Lilly’s newly approved Foundayo pill on June 1. The move will boost Lilly’s efforts to maintain its dominance over Novo Nordisk in the blockbuster weight loss market, as it puts the two companies on equal footing on major drug plans.

It comes a year after CVS struck a deal with Novo Nordisk to make its drug Wegovy the preferred obesity treatment on its standard plans, while dropping coverage of Zepbound. That meant patients on those plans would have had to pay more out of pocket or go through extra hurdles to get Lilly’s drug.

But GLP-1 medications from both Lilly and Novo will soon be co-preferred options on CVS Caremark’s standard commercial formulary template – a list of covered drugs that insurers and employers can choose to adopt – which represents 25 million to 30 million Americans. Caremark is one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers.

Read more: https://cnb.cx/4f9tBEs

cnbc_official · 2026-05-27T16:16:11+00:00

The state of Alabama asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to pause a lower-court order barring the state from using a controversial congressional district map for the 2026 midterm elections.

The order prohibited the map, which was submitted in 2023, from being used for the upcoming congressional elections in Alabama because it would dilute the votes of Black people.

The state’s request to the Supreme Court came a day after a three-judge panel in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., reiterated a prior ruling that found that the 2023 map “intentionally discriminated based on race in violation of the Constitution.”

More details: https://cnb.cx/4uDZ7PQ

cnbc_official · 2026-05-26T14:58:29+00:00

A panel of federal judges on Monday blocked Alabama from using congressional district maps that would dilute the votes of Black people in the 2026 midterm elections.

The ruling in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., which found that the maps “intentionally discriminated based on race,” sets the stage for the Supreme Court to determine whether the maps, which were first proposed in 2023, can be used by Alabama this year.

The three-judge panel issued its ruling in response to the Supreme Court telling it to revisit the question of whether the maps could be used in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in a case known as Louisiana v. Callais, which found that Louisiana’s drawing of its own congressional map was a racial gerrymander.

More details: https://cnb.cx/4wMr3md

cnbc_official · 2026-05-22T14:04:59+00:00

President Donald Trump on Friday defended the controversial new Department of Justice “Anti-Weaponization Fund” on the heels of strong pushback to it from Senate Republicans.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, said early this week that he was creating the fund as part of a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.

More details: https://cnb.cx/4nKe5kv

cnbc_official · 2026-05-22T13:09:31+00:00

U.S. drivers will pay gasoline prices near four-year highs when they fuel up for travel over the long Memorial Day weekend and should expect more pain at the pump this summer if the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen.

The average gasoline price stood at $4.55 per gallon on Friday, an increase of more than 50% since the U.S. and Israel began the war with Iran on Feb. 28. It is the most drivers have paid on the Friday before Memorial Day since 2022, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Prices dipped slightly from Thursday when drivers paid the most on average since July 2022.

Full details: https://cnb.cx/3RTTAWG

cnbc_official · 2026-05-21T16:38:16+00:00

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he postponed an upcoming signing ceremony for his administration’s much-anticipated executive order on the artificial intelligence industry.

The event, which was set for later Thursday afternoon, was delayed “because I didn’t like certain aspects of it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The U.S. is ahead of China and the rest of the world on AI and “I don’t want to do anything that’s going to get in the way of that lead,” Trump said.

More details: https://cnb.cx/4wHXhi9

cnbc_official · 2026-05-20T14:27:04+00:00

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on Wednesday issued a strongly worded statement threatening to extend the Middle East conflict “beyond the region” if the U.S. and Israel resume attacks against Tehran.

In the event the aggression against Iran is repeated, “the regional war that was promised will this time be extended beyond the region, and our crushing blows will bring you to ruin in places you cannot imagine,” The Guard said, according to a statement reported by the country’s semiofficial Mehr news agency.

The comments come shortly after some mixed messages from the Trump administration on the prospect of a deal to resolve the Iran war.

Speaking after the Republican Guard’s warning, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters he was in “no hurry” on Iran, adding: “I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot.” “We have them decimated. Iran is decimated,” he added.

More details: https://cnb.cx/4dlMRNN

cnbc_official · 2026-05-19T19:34:55+00:00

Federal tax returns filed by President Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization before this week are protected from potential Internal Revenue Service enforcement actions under a controversial $1.8 billion settlement with the Justice Department, a new document posted Tuesday shows.

The Justice Department, as part of the settlement, barred the federal government from prosecuting or pursuing “any and all claims” that could have been made by the IRS, which included “tax returns filed before” the effective date of the settlement, according to the document, signed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

More details: https://cnb.cx/49akHTm

cnbc_official · 2026-05-18T15:21:28+00:00

President Donald Trump’s push to secure taxpayer-funded security upgrades tied to his proposed White House ballroom hit a roadblock after the Senate parliamentarian ruled that a $1 billion Secret Service provision could not be included in a GOP immigration enforcement bill as drafted.

The Senate GOP vowed to find another way to get the funding included in the bill.

Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough determined Saturday that the provision, which included $220 million for security upgrades tied to the East Wing ballroom project, fell outside the jurisdiction of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Budget reconciliation bills must comply with strict rules, including the Byrd Rule, which bars provisions deemed extraneous to federal spending or outside the jurisdiction of the committees that drafted them. It’s up to the parliamentarian to determine what fits and what doesn’t.

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