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Homes under construction in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on Nov. 19th, 2024.Adam Jeffery | CNBCIf President-elect Donald Trump is going to push inflation back down to a more tolerable level, he will need help from housing costs, an area where federal policymakers have only a limited amount of influence.The November consumer price index report contained mixed news on the shelter front, which accounts for one-third of the closely followed inflation index.On one hand, the category posted its smallest full-year increase since February 2022. Moreover, two key rent-related components within the measure saw their smallest monthly gains in more than three years.But on the other hand, the annual rise was still 4.7%, a level that, excluding the Covid era, was last seen in mid-1991 when CPI inflation...

The Nasdaq Composite crossed a closely followed mark for the first time ever on Wednesday. Investors can thank Alphabet 's breakout on the back of a quantum announcement. The tech-heavy index eclipsed the 20,000 level , while the more-concentrated Nasdaq 100 also touched all-time highs. One of the best performers within tech was the Google parent, whose shares surged 5.5% and also hit a new intraday high. Alphabet rallied on Wednesday after the megacap technology company released its first version of an artificial intelligence model. That marks a second day of eye-popping gains for the stock, as shares jumped more than 5% on Tuesday following Alphabet's unveiling of a "breakthrough" quantum computing chip called Willow. GOOGL ALL mountain Alphabet, all-time Alphabet shares are now tracking...

Tech stocks on display at the Nasdaq.Peter Kramer | CNBCAlphabet and Tesla climbed to fresh records on Wednesday, closing at all-time highs alongside Amazon and Meta as the tech megacaps lifted the Nasdaq past 20,000 for the first time.Tech's seven trillion-dollar companies added roughly $416 billion in market cap for the day.For Alphabet, the two-day 11% rally was driven by the company's launch of its latest quantum computing chip, which it revealed on Monday and described as a "breakthrough" and "an important step in our journey to build a useful quantum computer with practical applications" in drug discovery, battery design and other areas.Alphabet closed at $195.40 on Wednesday, topping its prior high of $191.18, which it reached on July 10.Tesla had been below its previous record for ...

Russia has issued a travel warning to its citizens as it said tensions with the US are "teetering on the verge of rupture". Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, urged citizens on Wednesday to "refrain from trips to the US, Canada and with a few exceptions EU countries" over the Christmas period. She said those that travel were at risk of being "hunted" down by US authorities."In the context of the increasing confrontation in Russian-American relations, which are teetering on the verge of rupture due to the fault of Washington, trips to the United States of America privately or out of official necessity are fraught with serious risks," Ms Zakharova said.She did not elaborate which EU countries were exempt from the travel recommendations. Although travel warnings ...