Oil prices started the week with another fall, pulled lower by the prospect of Iranian oil flooding an already oversupplied global market.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators are hoping to seal a tentative political agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program before an end-of-March deadline. This could pave the way for increased Iranian oil exports and would be bearish for prices, which are again under pressure after several weeks of relative stability.

“What happens with Iran is important because of the direct impact on oil supply,” said David Hufton of brokerage PVM.

Talks between the U.S. and Iran are set to resume on Monday, though Western diplomats say serious negotiations over substance would still be needed in the months ahead before any international sanctions on Iran can be lifted.

Barclays analysts said that the perception that sanctions relief will lead to more oil on the market could pave the way for crude’s next move. “This supports our bearish view, and we see little likelihood of a bullish market reaction to developments in this space,” they wrote in a report.

However, sanctions won’t be removed in one fell swoop, the bank cautioned.

“Even in a best-case scenario on sanctions relief, a sea change in Iranian oil exports is unlikely until after June,” Barclays says.

On Friday, the International Energy Agency, an influential energy watchdog, warned the oil market remained fragile amid persistently high U.S. production and soaring oil inventories.

Though the number of U.S. oil drilling rigs—a proxy of production—has been falling in recent months, the rate of the decline has slowed, dropping by 56 to 866 last week, according to Baker Hughes Inc. That suggests U.S. oil producers are slowing the rate at which they cut production capacity, although the impact may take several months to show in the actual output.

“Naturally, lower rig count would suggest lower crude production; however, with new-well production on the rise, it is enough to taper off reductions in crude production,” Daniel Ang, investment analyst at Phillip Futures wrote in a report.

 

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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is investing $200 million in photo-messaging app Snapchat, a source familiar with the deal said, striking its latest Silicon Valley deal as the Chinese ecommerce company builds up mobile services.

The investment values the company at around $15 billion, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the situation as saying. This places the four-year-old company into the top ranks of privately held startups.

Snapchat's latest valuation is a massive increase for a company that Facebook offered to buy in late 2013 for $3 billion.

Los Angeles-based Snapchat, which allows its more than 100 million users to send messages that disappear in seconds, had sought capital to extend its core service. In January, it began carrying videos and articles from mainstream media outlets such as CNN and ESPN, bringing Snapchat into closer competition with Facebook and Twitter.

It is unclear what value the startup would bring to Alibaba, which handles more online commerce than Amazon.com and eBay combined. The Chinese company, which has been coping with a steady increase in shopping via smartphones and tablets, has made it a priority to develop mobile services.

Alibaba's investment spree comes also as the company plans a major move to win U.S. business this year, by offering American retailers new ways to sell to China's vast and growing middle class.

 

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Shake Shack Inc., the burger chain founded by restaurateur Danny Meyer, plunged as much as 8.5 percent in late trading after its inaugural earnings report failed to live up to investors’ lofty expectations.

The stock, which had more than doubled since its January initial public offering, dropped as low as $42.90 in after-market trading on Wednesday. While fourth-quarter revenue topped analysts’ estimates, the company predicted that same-store sales would grow in the low-single digits. That may not have been enough to satisfy shareholders after the stock’s surge, said Sharon Zackfia, analyst at William Blair & Co. in Chicago.

“It had a really strong run,” she said.        

The company, which started as a hot-dog kiosk in New York’s Madison Square Park, is known for upscale fast food, including its signature burgers made with beef from Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors. Though Shake Shack currently has just 66 locations, it’s been plotting a global expansion and touting itself as a new type of cuisine: fine casual.

That’s fueled optimism that the company can build a relatively small chain into a burger empire. Shake Shack’s revenue rose about 52 percent to $34.8 million in the fourth quarter. Sales at company-owned locations open at least two years, which includes 13 restaurants, rose 7.2 percent.

That rate isn’t sustainable in the long run, which is reflected in the company’s forecast, Chief Executive Officer Randy Garutti said on a conference call.

“We’re going to continue to be conservative,” he said.

 

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More than 40 million Americans are in debt thanks to their education, and most of their loans come from Uncle Sam. So President Barack Obama is aiming to clamp down on the private companies that service federal student debt with a presidential memorandum he will issue on Tuesday.

Obama’s policy tweaks, to be unveiled during a speech at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, don’t require new legislation from Congress — a plus as far as the White House is concerned. But they won’t be earth-shattering for student-borrowers, either. Instead, the new steps seek to tilt the student lending process more toward the borrowers, with a particular focus on graduates struggling to make their monthly payments.

Obama’s memorandum targets third parties like Sallie Mae/Navient that contract with the government to collect on federal student debt. Those companies will be required to better inform borrowers about their repayment options and notify them when they are delinquent on payments.

The president is also instructing the government to create a website where students can see all their federal loans in one place — a major problem for students with multiple loans, as well as those whose loans have been sold by one lender to another. He’s also asking for a single website where borrowers can file complaints about loan servicers, in an apparent recognition that customer service for student borrowers has been a major problem in the past.

Although Obama has long lamented the burden placed on young Americans and the broader economy by student debt and college affordability, he’s run into obstacles that have limited his efforts to improve the situation.

Using his executive authority, Obama expanded a federal loan repayment plan to allow more low-income Americans to cap their monthly payments at an affordable percentage of their income. But when Obama this year proposed to eliminate the so-called “529” college savings plan to make way for education tax benefits, opposition was so strong he had to jettison the idea. And the president’s State of the Union pitch this year for two years of free community college for every eligible American has gained little traction in the Republican-controlled Congress.

Obama will also direct federal agencies like the Education Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to determine whether more government rules are needed to keep student loan servicers in line. His memo also requires those companies to apply early payments from borrowers to loans with the highest interest rates, which could help students pay off their debt sooner.

Obama was to detail his student loan priorities during a trip Tuesday to Georgia, where the president will also headline a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee. Roughly 25 donors paid up to $33,400 to attend the private event at an Atlanta hotel.

 

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