Apple Soon To Be Worth $1 trillion?

Apple is the most valuable company in the world. Nobody else comes close.

It is worth more than $670 billion. Stop and think about just how iNormous that is for a second.

Apple (AAPL, Tech30) has a $260 billion market value lead over key rival Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) and is worth $300 billion more than Google (GOOGL, Tech30), another big competitor.

Apple's market cap is $185 billion higher than the combined market values of all 20 companies in the Dow Jones Transportation Average, an index that includes well-known blue chips such as FedEx (FDX), UPS (UPS). Union Pacific (UNP) and Delta (DAL),

So how much higher can Apple's stock climb? Could it one day be worth more than $1 trillion?

The case for iTrillion. Legendary investor Carl Icahn thinks so. Icahn, who owns a stake in Apple, said in a letter to the company's management team that the stock could be worth $203 a share.

That's nearly 80% higher than its current price. At that level, it would value Apple at more than $1 trillion -- even if Apple bought back as much stock as Icahn thinks is necessary to boost the share price. Most Wall Street analysts aren't as bullish on Apple though.

One of the most optimistic, Brian White of Cantor Fitzgerald, has a $143 price target on Apple, according to FactSet Research. That would value Apple at just under $840 billion.

Tiptoeing through the tech tulips again? But investors need to be careful of getting too excited about the 12 zero mark. You could argue that the mere fact we're contemplating whether Apple could or should be worth $1 trillion is a sign of another tech bubble like in 2000.

Back then, there were many investors who thought that either Microsoft or Cisco Systems (CSCO, Tech30) would eventually hit the $1 trillion level.

Needless to say, nearly 15 years have passed and we're still waiting for that to happen. Cisco is now "only" worth $135 billion --- well below its peak of about $550 billion in 2000.

Google or Microsoft beating Apple to $1T? Could Apple suffer the same fate as Cisco? Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners, thinks that's possible. He wrote in a report last month that Google has a better chance of getting to $1 trillion in market value since its business model of focusing on services and software will prove to be more profitable.

He still feels that way. He notes that Google is not as dependent on one product as Apple is with the iPhone, which accounted for 56% of Apple's total revenue in the last quarter.

Gillis added that he believes Microsoft, which is moving more into cloud-based services, under new CEO Satya Nadella, also is more likely to top $1 trillion in market value before Apple.

"Apple is a great company and it is sucking up all the profits in the smartphone market," he said. "But this is a product that's ultimately a low-margin widget. What happens if Apple eventually has to sell iPhones at cost because of even more competition?"

That's a good point. Apple, despite all its success, still is in the cutthroat hardware business. It's hard to stay on top of the gadget world forever. Just ask Sony. (SNE) Or Dell. Or Nokia (NOK).

Don't forget about China. It seems inevitable that at least one company will reach the $1 trillion market value at some point. After all, stocks historically go up over the long haul. Eventually, there could be multiple companies worth more than $1 trillion.

And one company actually has already hit the $1 trillion level ... albeit briefly. PetroChina(PTR) surpassed that level in 2007 when its stock began trading in Shanghai. It's now listed on the New York Stock Exchange as well but its market value has fallen to about $230 billion.

So maybe the next company to top $1 trillion in market value will also come from China?

Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) has been on fire since its IPO in the U.S. in September. The company is already worth nearly $285 billion.

Jack Ma's e-commerce giant is clearly a bet on the continued emergence of the middle class in China. And you could argue that a key investing trend for the next few decades will be consumer spending in China.

If that's the case, Alibaba stands to gain more from this than Apple, Microsoft, Google or any other American company.

Mark Zuckerbergs One Piece Advice For Struggling Entrepreneurs.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered questions yesterday during a live public Q&A about the future of the social network. The last question was asked by a shy 8th grader from a local school; she wanted to know how he forged through the hard times in the early Facebook days.

Zuckerberg’s answer was simple: Don’t go it alone. He faulted the media for propping up startup celebrities as superhuman, as though they can tackle any problem by themselves.

“No person knows how to deal with everything. But if you can find a team of people, or friends, or family — and there will be different people over time because different people like to focus on different problems or different scales of the problems — then that’s what’s really going to get you through, that’s what’s gotten me through and that’s what continues to get me through all the stuff that we have. Yeah, you don’t have to be superhuman, you have to just kind of keep on going and not do it alone and find people who share your passion for what is the important thing in the world.”

Interestingly enough, at Stanford this week, Linkedin cofounder Reid Hoffman gave a lecture on the exact same topic, although he gave more specific advice about how to leverage local and personal networks to found a great tech startup. Both he and Zuckerberg said that it’s better for a startup to have more than one founder.

“What great founders do is seek the networks that will be essential to their task…Usually it’s best to have two or three people on a team, rather than a solo founder,” Hoffman said.

4 worshipers killed in Jerusalem synagogue; Netanyahu calls for unity

 A Jerusalem synagogue turned from peaceful sanctuary to house of horrors within moments Tuesday, after two Palestinian cousins wielding a gun and butcher knives attacked during morning prayers -- a terror attack that Israel's leader characterized as "blood libel" fanned by Palestinian leaders.

Addressing reporters Tuesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for national unity against "those human animals who committed this massacre" and against those -- singling out Hamas, the Islamic movement and the Palestinian Authority -- who he claims "disseminate libels against the state of Israel."

"There are those who wish to uproot us from the capital, from our land," he said, referring to Jerusalem. "They will not be successful... We have to unify forces."

Netanyahu spoke hours after the latest act of violence to afflict the region, this time at a synagogue in West Jerusalem's neighbourhoodeaction to synagogue attack

Experts: No third intifada yet -- but little hope, either

Photos taken inside the Jewish house of worship, and released by Israeli officials, painted a grim scene -- from lifeless bodies sprawled on a floor to a shattered pair of glasses to blood seemingly everywhere, drenching holy books, prayer shawls and walls.

Three dual U.S.-Israeli citizens and a British-Israeli citizen died in the attack before police shot and killed the two assailants.

The terror attack -- the deadliest in Jerusalem since a man with an automatic weapon killed eight seminary students in March 2008 -- came at a particularly tense time in that city, and the region at large. It follows a series of recent deadly stabbings and vehicle incidents that, while not the large-scale suicide bombings that defined last decade's second intifada or the rocket attacks from Gaza earlier this year, have left Jerusalem on edge.

"While Israelis are a tough breed, repeated, totally unpredictable attacks are bound to take their toll," said David Harris, an expert with The Israel Project. "Is a mother going to allow her child to walk to school, to catch a bus to a movie theater or (ride a train) to visit a friend?"

Netanyahu blasts 'incitement' by Palestinian leaders

The answer to what's next came quickly, as Israeli authorities moved into the slain attackers' East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber to demolish their homes on Netanyahu's order. The Palestinians' official WAFA news agency reported 13 people were arrested, including an al-Aqsa Mosque guard.

Mark Regev, Netanyahu's spokesman, said that authorities were also "beefing up the security presence" around Jerusalem.

"The goal is to make sure that there are not copycat attacks," Regev said.

The war of words between the two sides, meanwhile, continued.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, something that Netanyahu said he was "glad" for but insisted "is not enough."

"(Abbas) does not send out terrorists, he doesn't directly encourage acts of terror, and this is good," the Prime Minister said, echoing an assessment by an Israeli security chief. "On the other hand, the incitement of the Palestinian Authority -- and he heads the Palestinian Authority -- and even some things he says ... encourage terrorism, in terms of incitement (of) tensions that run high."

There was no such equivocation about Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza. It's been at odds with Israel and also with Abbas' Fatah movement, which controls the West Bank.

Hamas did not claim responsibility for the synagogue attack, though it didn't back away from it either. Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the group, instead linked the attack to the discovery Sunday of anPalestinian bus driver hanged in his bus not far from where Tuesday's attack occurred. (For his part, Netanyahu said that claims the bus driver was killed were lies and that his death was ruled a suicide.)

Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad predicted to Al Jazeera International that "there will be more revolution in Jerusalem, and more uprising."

IDF kills palestinian in West Bank class Israeli guard arrested for teen's death

"Hamas in general supports action against the occupation," Hamad said. "Hamas supports any military action against the occupation anywhere it can be carried out."

Four rabbis killed

The latest example of such an action came at 7 a.m. Tuesday, when two Palestinian men entered a synagogue in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, where about 30 worshipers in prayer shawls and phylacteries were doing their morning prayers.

"They began attacking worshipers, stabbing them before opening fire," Israel's foreign ministry said.

The four killed were all rabbis: Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, 58; Aryeh Kupinsky, 43; Moshe Twersky, 59; and Kalman Levine, 55. Goldberg was a dual British-Israeli citizen, and the other three were U.S.-Israeli citizens -- which is why the FBI is investigating the attack, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.

"When four great men, wonderful men, wise in Torah study, are slaughtered while praying in public, there is no public grieving greater than that," said a rabbi who eulogized the men later Tuesday, before their burial.

Eight others were wounded -- including three who were seriously hurt and a policeman who was critically wounded, according to the foreign ministry.

Are you there? Share images, if you can safely

Officials overseas such as British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond strongly condemned the killings, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro called them "a barbaric new low in the sad and outrageous history of such attacks."

"Tragically, this is not the first loss of life that we have seen in recent months," U.S. President Barack Obama said after condemning "in the strongest terms" attacks he said were "a tragedy" for both Israel and the United States. "Too many Israelis have died, too many Palestinians have died. And at this difficult time, I think it's important for both Palestinians and Israelis to work together to lower tensions and reject violence."

Israelis attacked in Tel Aviv, West Bank Stopping violence in Jerusalem 19 precious monuments destroyed by war

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. But Israeli officials say the attackers came from East Jerusalem, where Palestinians can move more freely about the city than those living in Gaza, who must pass through stringent checkpoints.

Ma'an, a semi-official Palestinian news agency, identified the two men as Ghassan Abu Jamal and his cousin, Udayy.

Whether their actions were part of a coordinated campaign or a spontaneous reprisal, Tuesday's attack raises the specter of yet more violence against civilians.

The latest wave began earlier this year with the kidnapping of three Israeli teens, who were later found dead. Reprisal attacks, rocket fire and retaliatory airstrikes followed that incident, with more than 2,000 Palestinians and 67 Israelis reportedly killed after weeks of heavy fighting.

Much of the most recent unrest has been centered around Jerusalem. That includes the discovery of the body of Palestinian bus driver Yousuf al-Ramouni on Sunday, the same day an Israeli was stabbed with a screwdriver near central Jerusalem.

'There is no organization'

Last week, a 20-year-old was stabbed and killed in Tel Aviv, and three people were stabbed -- one fatally -- near the entrance to a settlement in the West Bank, the same spot where the three Israeli teens were kidnapped.

Analysts point out that large-scale violence has decreased in Jerusalem in recent years, partly because of increased security but also because Palestinian and Israeli leaders are cooperating behind the scenes.

But former Israeli National Security Adviser Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror said the recent acts of violence may be more difficult to stop than in the past because they seem to be carried out by individuals and not planned out and executed by a group.

"There is no organization behind it," he said, noting that all someone has to do is take a knife from their kitchen and attack. "... I don't see any measures that can be taken to stop an individual (like that)."

Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator, told CNN that incidents such as the "lynching" of the bus driver "have provoked the Palestinians to the point where many of them are retaliating individually by resorting to violence."

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat -- whose city is about two-thirds Jewish and one-third Arab -- said attacks like the one at the synagogue are "not just an Israeli problem."

"If the world doesn't unite against terrorism and give zero excuses for terrorism, this will haunt he world," he said. "This will happen everywhere in the world.

Culled from CNN

Michael Kafando sworn in as Burkina Faso transitional president

Michel Kafando was sworn in as transitional president of Burkina Faso on Tuesday, faced with the task of leading the West African country to elections in a year following a brief military takeover.

The former foreign minister, who will be barred from standing at the elections, is set to name a prime minister on Wednesday and together they will appoint a 25-member government, according a transition timetable.

"Our country will never be a 'banana republic'. Our eyes are open and things will never be the same again. We will scrupulously respect the political order in this country," Kafando told around 400 people at a hall in the capital.

Kafando was chosen by a committee on Monday set up after President Blaise Compaore resigned and fled on Oct. 31 in the face of mass protests against his attempt to change the constitution and extend his 27-year rule.

Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida stepped in the following day and declared himself head of state. He restored the constitution on Saturday in the face of domestic and international pressure.

Honduran Beauty Queen Missing Days Before Pageant

A Honduran beauty queen has disappeared days before the start of the Miss World pageant.

Investigators are searching for Miss Honduras World María José Alvarado Muñoz and her sister, who went missing on Thursday, police in the Central American country said Sunday. Family members reported their disappearance on Saturday, police said.

Eduardo Zablah, director of the pageant in Honduras, told CNN affiliate Televicentro that the sisters were last seen getting into a vehicle after attending a party last week.

Contestants from more than 120 countries are scheduled to start arriving in London this week for early rounds of the Miss World pageant. They'll face off in a final round on December 14.

Alvarado, a 19-year-old student from Santa Bárbara, Honduras, describes herself as an aspiring diplomat who enjoys playing volleyball and soccer in her spare time, according to a profile of her on the pageant's website.

She beat 18 contestants to win the Miss World Honduras crown in April.

Culled from CNN.

Warming!!! Climate Change May Fuel More Lightning

Rising global temperatures may cause a big jolt in the number of lightning strikes in the United States over the rest of the 21st century in the latest example of extreme weather spawned by climate change, scientists say.

Researchers forecast on Thursday that lightning strikes will increase by about 50 percent by 2100 in the continental United States because thunderstorms will become more explosive in the coming decades thanks to a warming planet.

This increase could lead to more wildfires because lightning already triggers half of these blazes in the United States, the researchers said. Lightning also kills dozens of Americans annually, with that risk expected to rise.

Considering factors including precipitation levels, cloud buoyancy and warming air, the scientists predicted a 7 percent increase in the number of lightning strikes with each degree Fahrenheit global average temperature increase (12 percent for each degree Celsius).

The 11 different climate models used in the study pointed to an increase of 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) between now and 2100.

"There are about 30 million strikes per year in the contiguous U.S. now. So, in 2100, we would expect about 45 million per year," said climate scientist David Romps of the University of California, Berkeley and the U.S. government’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who led the study published in the journal Science.

"For every two lightning strikes in 2000, there will be three lightning strikes in 2100," Romps added.

The researchers said rising temperatures breed lightning because the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere - the fuel for thunderstorms - increases exponentially as the air gets warmer.

"As the planet warms, there will be more of this fuel lying around, so when thunderstorms get triggered, they will be more energetic. This increase in thunderstorm energy is the primary reason for the projected increase in lightning strikes," Romps said.

Many experts blame weather intensity in recent years on global climate change they attribute to human activities.

"The body of research attributing trends in extreme weather to human influence is certainly growing rapidly," said University of California, Berkeley climate researcher Jacob Seeley.

"We are pushing our climate system into uncharted territory, and that means we're going to see phenomena that are extreme compared to what humans have experienced thus far during the relatively short amount of time we have been flourishing on this planet," Seeley added.

Why Crude Oil is more likely to test $50 than $100 again next year by John Kilduff

When oil and gasoline prices are soaring, oil analysts like myself try to assuage the fears of consumers with the old saw: There is no better cure for high prices than high prices.

The succinct analysis of commodity market dynamics likely makes motorists irate, as they pay $100 or more to fill up the family SUV. They fail to appreciate how efficient market forces can be, even at that particular moment of pain.

However, that is precisely why oil prices are falling now—and will likely continue to fall in the coming months to as low as $50 per barrel!

On Thursday, in its weekly inventory report, the U.S. Department of Energy reported that oil production in the United States rose to its highest level in 29 years to just over 9 million barrels per day. To put that in perspective, the U.S. is now nipping at Saudi Arabia's heels, with that country currently producing about 9.6 million barrels per day.

The surge in U.S. oil production is due to the immense success of a reborn technology: hydraulic fracturing (better known as fracking), which has liberated millions of barrels of oil and millions of cubic feet of natural gas from fields that were thought to be bereft of fossil fuels.

Opponents of the practice have their work cut for them given the tremendous impact the drilling is having on oil and natural gas prices.

The second part of the low oil price story involves several key pipeline upgrades that actually changed the flow of oil, bringing it from the middle of the country to the Gulf Coast, where it is needed to supply the majority of the country's refineries.

The changes have been so impactful that, at times, Gulf Coast storage facilities have been nearly filled to capacity. The U.S. has virtually ended imports of crude oil from West African countries, such as Nigeria, which used to be a key source of supply. 

OPEC members are now scrambling to prop up oil prices, and find buyers for their oil. During the past several months, tankers of oil have sat idling, waiting to sail to port to unload their cargo. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran are in a battle to secure sales to China and other Asian buyers at the expense of other countries in the cartel.

It is not helping their cause that Alaska North Slope crude oil is now being exported to South Korea on a regular basis now. That started in September.

Adding to the supply glut has been the return of Libya's oil production, despite a raging civil war with two competing governments asserting governance over the country. Also, even as ISIS forces roll through Iraq, exports continue to rise to record post-Iraq war levels.

The Kurds were finally able to strike a deal with Baghdad that will allow exports from Northern Iraq to surge, as well, in the coming months. If that's not enough, North Sea production is set to rise over 11 percent in December, due to upgrades to the system there.

In other words, increasing amounts of crude oil are hitting the global market, left, right, and center.

Several OPEC members are now calling for a production cut to be announced at their upcoming meeting, but they are looking for Saudi Arabia to carry the load, which is not going to happen. Based upon bewildering statements by the Saudi oil minister this week, the Saudis do not appear inclined to cut.

Market share is more important to them because they want to maintain their relevance. With their low cost of production, they believe they can sweat out the higher-cost competition, including U.S. frackers.

So, the OPEC meeting on Thanksgiving Day will likely end in discord and cause another leg lower for oil prices. 

By next March, U.S. oil production will be nearing the 9.5 million barrel per day level, and possibly higher. With the winter coming to an end then, the global market enters a slack demand period, which will increase the downward pressure on prices.

Oil producers of all stripes will be staring down prices near the $50 level. Russia's President Putin is already preparing for a "catastrophic" oil price drop.

Something will have to give. Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members will be forced to curtail production or U.S. oil producers will have to throw in the towel as they await a price rebound. The U.S. needs to be careful what it wishes for, in terms of setting back the march toward energy independence.

The surging production trends will have consequences, in addition to the huge benefit to consumers. After all, as the saying goes, there is no better cure for low prices than low prices.