BLOOMBERG

Goldman: Here's Why Oil Crashed-and Why Lower Prices Are Here to Stay

Too. Much. Oil.

Oil prices have gotten crushed for the last six months. The extent to which that was caused by an excess of supply or by a slowdown in demand has big implications for where prices will head next. People wishing for a big rebound may not want to read farther.

Goldman Sachs released an intriguing analysis on Wednesday that shows what many already suspected: The big culprit in the oil crash has been an abundance of oil flooding the market. A massive supply shock in the second half of last year accounted for most of the decline. In December and January, slowing demand contributed to the continued sell-off. Goldman was able to quantify these effects.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-11/goldman-here-s-why-oil-crashed-and-why-lower-prices-are-here-to-stay

REUTERS
Icahn values Apple at more than $1 trillion

(Reuters) - Activist investor and major Apple Inc shareholder Carl Icahn said the iPhone maker's stock should be trading at $216, far above its record high of $124.92 hit on Wednesday.

At $216 per share, Apple - already the world's most valuable company - would be worth about $1.3 trillion, or about the size of South Korea's gross domestic product.

The company is valued at just over $700 billion currently.

Icahn said Apple should be trading at 20 times earnings per share, which taken together with net cash of $22 per share works out to $216 per share.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/12/us-apple-icahn-idUSKBN0LF2EU20150212

REUTERS

Greece, euro zone fail to agree on debt, to try again on Monday

(Reuters) - Greece's new leftist government and its international creditors failed to agree on a way forward on the country's unpopular bailout and will try again on Monday, with time running out for a financing deal.

In seven hours of crisis talks in Brussels that ended after midnight, euro zone finance ministers were unable to agree even a joint statement on the next procedural steps. Both sides played down the setback, insisting there had been no rupture.

But Greek stock prices, which whipped higher after hours in New York on talk of an accord, sagged with disappointment when it emerged that Greece's laconic new Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had walked away from a draft deal to extend current credit terms after conferring with fellow Greek officials.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/12/us-eurozone-greece-idUSKBN0LF1CE20150212