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Lando plays Pierce Kennedy, the new state pathologist in Dublin, who feeds cases to Harry and Fergus.

The New York Mets dropped another frustrating series, this time to the Philadelphia Phillies, and now sit 9 games under .500 after losing four of their last six games. On this episode of Straight Outta Flushing, presented by your local Ford dealers, Dexter Henry and Tyler Ward break down where things stand for a Mets...

On a new episode of Straight Outta Flushing, presented by your local Ford dealers, Dexter Henry and Tyler Ward discuss David Peterson’s continued struggles as the Mets’ rotation continues to be a major detriment to the club’s 2026 hopes. Full episode: https://youtu.be/TD0vj-yorfw

The Technical Backdrop: When Flows Meet A Hawkish Fed

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Here’s the setup most investors are underrating right now. Over the next two weeks, the tape will trade on plumbing rather than fundamentals. We just cleared the largest options expiration in history. Quarter-end pension selling comes next, and then July 1 reopens the passive-money firehose into a market that already routes forty cents of every S&P 500 dollar into ten stocks. The whole market technical backdrop points higher into July. But Kevin Warsh’s first meeting as Fed chair just put a rate HIKE back on the table, and that quietly changes the math underneath every one of those flows.

I want to give credit where it’s due. Scott Rubner, the chief equity and derivatives strategist at Citadel Securities, laid out the mechanical case in a note last week, and I agree with most of his map.1 Citadel sees about 35% of all US retail order flow, so when they describe positioning, I listen. The disagreement isn’t about the flows. It’s about what got armed underneath them on Wednesday afternoon.

The Setup: Two Weeks of Pure Mechanics

Three events are stacked on top of each other. First, Thursday’s quadruple witching, pulled forward a day because of the Juneteenth holiday, cleared roughly $8.3 trillion of US options exposure, about 28% of all listed open interest, and the biggest expiration ever recorded.1 That event strips a mountain of dealer gamma out of the market, which is the technical way of saying price gets less anchored and more sensitive to whatever flow shows up next. That’s the first piece of the technical backdrop heading into quarter-end.

Secondly, we are heading into the end of the second quarter. With the large surge in the financial markets, any allocation-based fund managers are now overweight equities and underweight bonds. As shown, the top 100 US pension funds are now roughly 110% funded, their healthiest position since 2001.1 

The reason that is important is that funded plans don’t press their luck; they de-risk. As noted, the “out of balance” mechanic suggests a risk of mechanical selling of equities and buying of bonds into the month-end. Any weakness that the “rebalancing” mechanic creates is a flow story, not a fundamental one. However, on July 1, that negative flow flips the switch the other way. Retirement contributions, target-date funds, passive allocations, and systematic strategies all reload at once.

The scale of that reload is the part worth sitting with. ETFs have already pulled in more than $1 trillion this year, running about 45% ahead of last year’s record pace.1 The average full year of ETF inflows through 2024 ran near $490 billion.

Read that again. Investors have committed twice as much as a normal year’s worth of money in under six months, and a growing slice of it is mechanical.

The Technical Backdrop Beneath the Headlines

Before we argue about flows, let’s anchor the technical backdrop in the actual price. The S&P 500 closed Wednesday at 7,420 after Warsh’s debut knocked 1.21% off the index, then rebounded roughly 1.2% Thursday to near 7,505 ahead of the long weekend.2,3 Even after the Fed scare, the index sits about 2% above its 50-day average, nearly 8% above its 200-day, and only a couple of percent under the all-time high it set this month at 7,620. The spring low of 6,344 is now seventeen percent below us.

That last point matters. As of Wednesday, only about 58% of S&P 500 members were trading above their own 50-day average.4 Healthy advances usually carry 70% to 80% of the index along for the ride. This one keeps making highs on the backs of a shrinking list of names. The index looks strong. The average stock inside it looks tired.

I won’t pretend the demand picture is anything but strong. Retail activity broke records in May and has pushed higher in June, with nine of the ten busiest retail trading days ever landing inside the last month.1 Corporations have authorized north of $925 billion in buybacks this year, the fastest pace on record through mid-year, and technology plus financials make up roughly 57% of it.1 When retail, passive, and the buyback machine all lean in the same direction, fighting that tape has been a losing game.

Here’s the problem buried inside the good news, and it’s the part of the technical backdrop that worries me most. All three of those buyers funnel into the same handful of stocks. Roughly 18 cents of every S&P dollar now chases semiconductors, 33 cents lands in the Magnificent 7, and close to 40 cents flows into the ten largest holdings.1 Leveraged ETFs have compounded it. Their assets hit a record $218 billion, up about 60% since the end of March, with semiconductor-linked leverage nearly tripling.1

Here’s Where I Part Ways With the Flow Note

Rubner’s call is that the path of least resistance stays higher into the back half of the year. On the mechanics alone, I’d struggle to argue with him. The seasonal record is genuinely strong, too. Since 1928, the S&P has risen 69% of the time in the first half of July, and the Nasdaq 100 has been positive in 17 of the last 18 years.1

So why am I not all-in on the bull case? Because the note was written one day before, the technical backdrop beneath it changed. The entire dip-buying reflex that Citadel documents rests on an unspoken belief that the Fed has investors’ backs. On Wednesday, Kevin Warsh quietly took that belief away. The committee held at 3.75%, but half the FOMC penciled in at least one rate increase this year, the easing bias vanished from the statement, and the S&P booked its worst first “Fed day” for a new chair since 1994.2,5 The ten-year yield jumped back toward 4.5%.3

Make no mistake about what that does to the math. Citadel’s own data shows the buy-the-dip behavior holds until the VIX climbs above 30. Today it’s nearly 17. That sounds reassuring. It isn’t. A 17 reading isn’t safety, it’s complacency, and complacency is precisely the condition Howard Marks warns about when he says the riskiest moment is the one that feels least risky. As Bob Farrell’s Rule #9 reminds us, when everyone agrees on the outcome, something else tends to happen.

And remember Farrell’s Rule #4: exponential moves go further than anyone expects, but they don’t resolve by going sideways. A market that runs on flows, leverage, and a shrinking group of leaders can absolutely melt up into July. It can also reverse hard the moment those same mechanical buyers turn into sellers. I’ve been writing for weeks that this is a tape driven by positioning more than fundamentals, and I covered the record retail ETF flows in a recent Daily Market Commentary. Strong flows are bullish until the catalyst arrives that makes them stop.

What the Technical Backdrop Means For Your Portfolio

None of this is a reason to sell everything and hide. It’s a reason to participate with discipline rather than abandon. The seasonal and flow tailwinds are real, and fighting them outright has cost investors dearly. We stay invested. But this is a tape to manage, not to chase.

In our portfolio models, we haven’t pressed our most extended winners, but trimmed the most stretched exposure back toward target weight. We also added to our defensive names and let our cash buffer continue to ride for now. As such, we keep participating without betting the account on a melt-up that depends on the Fed staying friendly. That’s the trade-off worth naming out loud. Carrying a little cash caps your upside if the market runs another leg. It also hands you dry powder if quarter-end selling or a Warsh follow-through gives you a better entry. I’ll take that asymmetry here.

Watch three things into the new quarter.

• The VIX. A move toward 30 is the level where, by Citadel’s own work, the reflexive dip-buyers go quiet.

• Breadth. If the percentage of stocks above their 50-day keeps fading while the index grinds higher, the divergence usually resolves the wrong way.

• Lastly, watch the long end of the curve. If Warsh’s signal keeps the ten-year climbing, the most expensive, most crowded, most rate-sensitive corner of this market, the same one soaking up forty cents of every dollar, is the corner that pays for it first.

The technical backdrop and the flows point higher into July. I won’t fight that into the new allocation cycle, but a tripwire just got armed underneath the whole thing. As such, the smart move is to keep one hand on the risk dial while you collect the seasonal tailwind.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/22/2026 - 14:45

Another Ukrainian Drone Wave On Moscow Temporarily Shuts Down All Four Capital Airports

Yet another major Ukrainian drone attack wave on Moscow has shut down all regional airports, and sent parts of the capital city into temporary panic, and involved dozens of drones shot down overnight. Over 80 drones were intercepted in the past 24 hours, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced Monday on Telegram.

He didn't offer numbers in terms of casualties or damage, but emergency services were dispatched to several areas, given there was debris fallout and key neighborhoods impacted.

Image source: Astra

Across Russia more broadly, hundreds of drones were reportedly downed overnigh, but most of the attacks seemed concentrated on the Moscow area.

The Moscow Times reports of the Moscow region's four commercial flight hubs, "Civil aviation authorities said operations at Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports were suspended during the multi-hour attack for safety reasons. The flight restrictions were lifted later in the morning."

Much of the information on strike targets in Russia have come through Telegram and social media channels, and have remained unconfirmed on an official level, but various videos suggest a very large-scale attack.

For example, Sky News reports that "Another post claimed a factory producing electronics for Russian missiles had been struck in Voronezh, more than 100 miles from Ukraine."

All Moscow airports have been closed down due to drone attacks.

There are huge crowds as over 150 flights have been delayed or canceled. pic.twitter.com/lbngWIsBbw

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 22, 2026

Meanwhile, Ukraine has also suffered significant damage and losses - including reports that a Russian drone killed three members of one family, among the victims ⁠a 13-year-old boy, in ⁠Ukraine’s northern ​Sumy ‌region, as cited in Reuters.

President Zelensky commented, "Yet today, Russia began this day not by honoring those who fell in World War II, and not with signals that could help bring the current war – Russia’s war against Ukraine – closer to an end. Instead, it began with more completely unjustifiable killings."

“This Russian war has no justifiable cause. Putin was driven by exactly the same motives as the aggressors who came before him. He shows the same contempt for human life. He is just as delusional about this absurd ‘empire’ of his that nobody needs. This war must be brought to an end.”

Ukraine has been escalating the aerial drone war - seeking to impose a high cost on Russia's industrial and military base - even as it continues to suffer serious manpower shortages along the front lines in the east...

What do you do when you are short of Patriots?
You do this to your enemy’s factory making electronics for ballistic missiles.
Hit the arrow-maker, not the arrow. Voronezh, Russia, today. pic.twitter.com/gqTp5QIMAd

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) June 22, 2026

Zelensky has also again vowed to bring the war to Russia - and in particular it has been rare massive attacks on Moscow which have been particularly devastating. Key energy sites have continued to be pummeled.

The end of last week saw one of the biggest single drone waves on Moscow, after which Russia has vowed to carry out frequent and "massive group strikes" against Ukraine.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/22/2026 - 14:25

The move effectively gives bureaucrats the thumbs-up to start spending cash and get construction going.

The US city that inspired Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pie-in-the-sky idea to provide Big Apple commuters free bus service is now slapping fares back on riders after its $50 million experiment ran dry. Kansas City, which used federal COVID relief funds in 2020 to become the first in the country to roll out free buses, brought...

The comedian and musician has accused the singer of a salacious online smear campaign.

She praised her new husband in a lovey Instagram post shared over the weekend.

She praised her new husband in a lovey Instagram post shared over the weekend.

Parents are saving money and giving their kids a little dose of culture.

The musician was hit with several charges for an alleged incident in New Mexico back in May.

The musician was hit with several charges for an alleged incident in New Mexico back in May.

This vintage Dolce & Gabbana dress certainly doesn't feature low-viscosity rayon with half-loop top stitching on the hem.

This vintage Dolce & Gabbana dress certainly doesn't feature low-viscosity rayon with half-loop top stitching on the hem.

Nursing School Owner Pleads Guilty After Issuing Nearly 3,000 Fake Diplomas

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Carleen Noreus, who owned two nursing schools in South Florida, has pleaded guilty to her role in a scheme that sold nearly 3,000 fraudulent nursing diplomas, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a June 18 statement.

A person receives a vaccine in Los Angeles, in this file photograph. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

The defendant, 52, from Plantation, Florida, was president of the Carleen Home Health School Inc. in Plantation and vice president of Carleen Home Health School II Inc. in West Palm Beach.

"Noreus conspired with others to sell fraudulent nursing diplomas and educational transcripts to individuals who had not completed the required coursework or clinical training to earn Registered Nurse (RN), Licensed Practical Nurse/Vocational Nurse (LPN/VN), or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) credentials," the DOJ said.

"The fraudulent diplomas and transcripts falsely represented that purchasers had successfully completed the academic and clinical requirements of the schools when, in reality, they had not."

The documents allowed the buyers to take part in national nursing board examinations. Those who passed the exams obtained nursing licenses and employment in the healthcare sector.

In total, Noreus provided 2,956 fraudulent nursing diplomas through her two schools between April 17, 2018, and Oct. 8, 2025. Of the individuals who obtained fake credentials, roughly 2,274 passed the nursing exams, secured licenses, and gained employment in Florida and other parts of the United States. Both institutions have been shut down by state authorities.

The case is part of the second phase of Operation Nightingale, a multi-state law enforcement action launched in January 2023 to arrest individuals who sell fraudulent nursing degree diplomas and transcripts.

The operation led to 25 individuals being charged for the fraud scheme in January 2023. In a Jan. 25, 2023, statement, the DOJ said that more than 7,600 fake nursing diplomas were issued by three nursing schools in South Florida.

On Sept. 15, 2025, the DOJ said that 30 defendants were charged and convicted in 2023 as part of the operation. In addition, the department also announced charges against 12 people in phase two of Operation Nightingale.

Thirteen individuals have been charged in the second phase, including Noreus, the DOJ said in its latest statement. Noreus, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count.

"Nursing licenses must be earned through education, training, and demonstrated competence, not purchased through fraud," said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Jason A. Reding Quiñones.

"By selling thousands of fraudulent diplomas and transcripts, the defendant undermined the integrity of the nursing profession and our healthcare system. The Southern District of Florida remains committed to holding accountable those who profit by corrupting professional licensing processes and placing the public at risk."

Earlier this year, a Maryland man was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in another case of nursing credential fraud, according to a DOJ statement issued on April 24.

The person sold fake documents in the name of a Virginia nursing school, which falsely affirmed that buyers had completed the required courses and training at the institution to secure nursing degrees. The individual also sold fraudulent nursing degrees from a Florida-based nursing school.

Nursing Shortage

The country's nursing workforce is projected to face a shortage in the coming years, according to a December 2025 report from the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis.

"At the national level, there are shortages projected until 2038. Specifically, there is a projected 8 percent shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in 2028. By 2038, the shortage is 3 percent (a shortage of 108,960 full-time equivalent [FTE] RNs)," the report stated.

"Nonmetro areas are projected to have a higher shortage of RNs than metro areas in each of the three interval years: 11 percent vs 2 percent in 2038, 18 percent vs 4 percent in 2033, and 24 percent vs 5 percent in 2028."

However, National Nurses United (NNU), a professional association of registered nurses with over 225,000 members nationwide, dismissed claims of shortages in a May 26 statement.

An analysis conducted by the group found that almost 1.15 million registered nurses in the country with active licenses were not working as nurses, the statement said.

NNU president Jamie Brown said the U.S. nursing sector is facing a "retention crisis" rather than a shortage, blaming "unsafe and unsustainable" working conditions for driving many nurses away from their jobs.

Tyler Durden Mon, 06/22/2026 - 14:05

The strategy could pay dividends in a Democratic primary but become a liability in a general election, according to political strategist Matt Klink.

Lionel Messi finally has the World Cup scoring record all to himself — and he did it after missing the chance to get there from the penalty spot.

Ryan Condal recently explained exactly how long it takes for "prep and shooting," as well as the special effects needed "to make dragons."

Ryan Condal recently explained exactly how long it takes for "prep and shooting," as well as the special effects needed "to make dragons."