Job cuts lie ahead for American Airlines

Job cuts lie ahead for American AirlinesAMR Corp. "most certainly" will cut jobs as the parent of American Airlines revamps its fleet and flight network and may become a takeover target during its bankruptcy, Chief Executive Tom Horton said. American, the third-biggest U.S. airline, will decide "in the coming weeks" about what aircraft it will keep, the size of its route system, how many workers the Fort Worth, Texas-based carrier requires and what it needs to negotiate in labor contracts, he said in a letter to employees.

Settlement reached in Chinese drywall suitsKnauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co., a Chinese drywall maker, agreed to pay at least $800 million to settle homeowner claims that faulty building materials contaminated their homes with corrosive sulfur fumes, plaintiffs' lawyers said. Knauf agreed to resolve claims involving about 4,500 properties that contain the tainted drywall, lawyers for property owners said. The $800 million figure "is wildly speculative and premature," Greg Wallance, a KPT lawyer, said. "We are confident the figure will be considerably lower."

A surprise drop for U.S. industrial productionU.S. industrial production unexpectedly dropped in November for the first time in seven months, an indication of a pause in manufacturing as 2011 comes to a close. Output at factories, mines and utilities declined 0.2 percent after a 0.7 percent gain in October, figures from the Federal Reserve showed. Economists forecast a 0.1 percent advance, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Factory production decreased 0.4 percent.

Corzine says he was told transfers were legalJon Corzine, former chief executive of MF Global Holdings Ltd., told lawmakers that the firm's back-office staff "explicitly" informed him that fund transfers made before the company filed for bankruptcy were legal. Corzine, testifying before U.S. lawmakers for the third time in a week, was responding to allegations made at a U.S. Senate hearing earlier this week when the executive chairman CME Group Inc. told lawmakers Corzine had known of a $175 million loan using client money that was made before the Oct. 31 bankruptcy.

BlackBerry maker RIM lowers expectationsResearch In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, projected lower sales and profit than analysts had estimated, dragged down by customers switching to Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Android devices. The stock tumbled as much as 7.9 percent in after-hours trading after RIM forecast profit of 80 cents to 95 cents a share for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ends on March 3. Sales will be $4.6 billion to $4.9 billion, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said. Analysts had projected profit of $1.08 a share and sales of $4.85 billion.

SEC to appeal rejection of Citigroup dealThe Securities and Exchange Commission said it would appeal a federal judge's November decision to reject a settlement between the commission and Citigroup over securities fraud charges. In a statement accompanying a filing in U.S. District Court in New York, the agency cited "legal error" in the decision and said it would ask the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the decision by Judge Jed Rakoff.

New York Times CEO plans to step downThe New York Times Co. said CEO Janet Robinson will step down at the end of the month. Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., the company's chairman and the publisher of the New York Times, will be interim chief executive while the company searches for a new CEO. Times spokesman Robert Christie declined to comment on why Robinson, who served as chief executive during a time of rapid change and uncertainty in the newspaper industry, was stepping down.

FROM NEWS SERVICES