SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (NasdaqGS:AAPL - News) beat Wall Street targets with a 67 percent rise in quarterly profit on Monday, led by strong sales of its Macintosh computers and a big first full quarter from the iPhone, sending its shares up nearly 6 percent

The results showed that the popularity of Apple's new gadgets was driving up sales of its core computer products, analysts said.

"There's no question that Mac sales are still having a halo effect from the iPod and iPhone," said Tim Bajarin, president of technology consulting company Creative Strategies.

Apple's net profit was $904 million, or $1.01 per share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with $542 million, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue was $6.22 billion, up 29 percent from $4.84 billion a year earlier.

The results handily beat Wall Street's average targets of 85 cents per share earnings and $6.06 billion revenue, according to Reuters Estimates.

Apple also forecast fiscal first-quarter revenue of $9.2 billion, ahead of the $8.7 billion average Wall Street target.

"The guidance was extremely strong, well north of consensus. It appears that they are expecting an

As the price of crude oil broke $90 a barrel for the first time, investors worried that stocks were headed for a major downturn. But the odds are high that the bull market will survive.

First, though, let's face up to the bad news. The current oil price is high enough to threaten the economy. During the oil crisis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the price of a barrel of crude peaked at between $75 and $80 in today's dollars. So we're well past that now.

In coming years, the oil price is likely to stay relatively high. After the last oil crisis ended, oil plummeted to less than $20 a barrel (in today's dollars) several times between 1986 and 1998. But when the current squeeze finally eases, we'll be lucky if oil dips below $50.

The problem is that all the cheap oil is being used up. Supplies can't be increased very fast, and new production is expensive.

Plus, globalization is producing phenomenal growth in China and other emerging countries, which are far