Dec 23 (Reuters) – The United States and Iran traded barbs at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday over conditions for reviving nuclear talks, with the U.S. saying it remains ready for direct negotiations and Iran rejecting Washington’s terms. The two countries held five rounds of nuclear talks prior to a 12-day war between…

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks closed higher to kick off the holiday-shortened trading week on Monday, buoyed partly by a continued rebound by technology stocks in a broad advance that saw gains among almost all of the 11 S&P 500 sectors.   The bounce in tech names began late last…

By Jody Godoy Dec 22 (Reuters) – Instacart is ending price tests that resulted in different shoppers being shown different prices for groceries, the online retail platform said on Monday after criticism of its artificial intelligence-driven pricing tool. The company faced an outcry after a study by Consumer Reports and two other nonprofits showed some…

By Jonathan Landay, Erin Banco and John Irish WASHINGTON/PARIS, Dec 19 (Reuters) – U.S. intelligence reports continue to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin has not abandoned his aims of capturing all of Ukraine and reclaiming parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire, six sources familiar with U.S. intelligence said, even as…

By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters) – Most major stock indexes were higher at the start of a holiday-shortened week on Monday, with shares of Nvidia rising, while the yen strengthened against the U.S. dollar after Japanese officials warned against “one-sided and sharp” currency moves. Gold and silver jumped to record highs, and…

By Manya Saini Dec 22 (Reuters) – Coinbase said on Monday it will buy prediction markets startup The Clearing Company, its tenth acquisition this year, as the crypto exchange looks to expand beyond its core digital assets business. Prediction markets let users buy and sell contracts tied to the outcomes of real-world events, ranging from…

By Idrees Ali Dec 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing an oil tanker in international waters near Venezuela, officials told Reuters on Sunday, in what would be the second such operation this weekend and the third in less than a week. One of the officials said the tanker was under sanctions. The…

(Corrects spelling in story identifier to RUSSIA-CYBER/UKRAINE) By AJ Vicens Dec 19 (Reuters) – Russian technology companies working on air defense, sensitive electronics and other defense applications were targeted in recent weeks by a cyber espionage group using AI-generated decoy documents, according to a cybersecurity analyst. The discovery by cybersecurity firm Intezer shows how AI…

WASHINGTON, ⁠Dec 18 (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits ⁠fell last week, reversing the prior week’s surge and suggesting labor market conditions remained stable in December. Initial claims for state unemployment ⁠benefits dropped 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 224,000 for the week ended December 13, the Labor Department said…

By ⁠Amina Niasse and Ahmed Aboulenein NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) – Americans facing skyrocketing Obamacare health insurance premiums could still get a break from ⁠expanded government subsidies in 2026 through retroactive legislation and possibly a special enrollment period, investors, analysts and industry experts say. President Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been divided…