ALSO I N BUSINESS U.S. home prices

declined for a sixth straight month in December, sending a key index of values down 2.7 percent from its peak in June. Prices nationally fell 0.3 percent in December from the month before, according to seasonally adjusted data from S&P Corelogic Case-shiller. Buyers pulled back from the market toward the end of 2022, slammed by mortgage rates that had more than doubled since that January. Prices in December were still higher than they were a year earlier, but the pace of gains has cooled.