Gas prices dropped 1.3-cents overnight to $2.504

Andrew Torgan
CNN Financial News Producer

Consumer prices shot up in June by the largest amount in 11 months, reflecting the biggest jump in gasoline prices in nearly five years.

The Consumer Price Index, the Labor Department's key measure of inflation, rose 0.7% in June due mainly to higher energy and automobile prices. But the core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose a modest 0.2%.

And on a year-over-year basis, prices have fallen 1.4%. That’s the largest drop since 1950, when Harry Truman was president.

Intel sparks rally on Wall Street

Stocks surged out of the starting gate this morning and never looked back after chipmaker Intel said business is picking up fast - adding to bets that the economy is starting to stabilize.

The Dow was up more than 170 points by lunchtime and the Nasdaq was higher by nearly 3% - driven higher by shares of Intel.

The world’s biggest chipmaker reported profit and revenue late Tuesday that dipped from a year ago, but surpassed forecasts. Intel also forecast better revenue growth in the third and fourth quarters, thanks to improved demand for personal computers.

Gas prices down nearly 40% from record high

Gas prices dropped 1.3-cents overnight to $2.504 - the 24th straight day of declines.

In the last 24 days, the average price has decreased 18.9 cents, or 7.01%. The average price of a gallon of gas is also down $1.61, or 39.1%, from the record high price of $4.114 that AAA reported on July 17, 2008.

The highest gas prices are in Hawaii ($3.256). The cheapest are in Missouri ($2.258).

The high price of smoking

Finally, more proof that smoking is hazardous to your health - or at least your bank account.

A New Hampshire man says he swiped his debit card at a gas station to buy a pack of cigarettes and was charged more $23 quadrillion dollars. Josh Muszynski checked his account online a few hours later and saw the 17-digit number - a stunning $23,148,855,308,184,500.

Muszynski told the Associated Press he spent two hours on the phone with Bank of America trying to sort out the string of numbers and the $15 overdraft fee.

The bank corrected the error the next day.