Blog

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 ...

A top commander in Syria has warned that a resurgent ISIS is starting to take advantage of the chaotic fall of Bashar al Assad.The lightning advance by opposition groups on Damascus has been the focus of much attention but the revolution has created power vacuums across the country. What's happening in Syria is an opportunity but also a moment of great jeopardy.Syria latest: Russia hits out at Israel over airstrikesAs the country struggles to emerge from the darkness and brutality of the Assad regime many groups are vying for position in this new reality - and it is in that space that Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is trying to gather strength.In the northeast, the Kurds are worried about what may happen.One of the most important figures in this region is General Abdi Mazloum, the ...