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An unprecedented outflow of New Zealand citizens last year for jobs and better pay in Australia is leaving the nation

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U.S. economic growth may not top 2 percent this year and a third round of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve would have little effect, said Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University.

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An accounting change boosted Ford’s fourth-quarter net income, but without the gain the company fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.

Weak sales in Europe and lower production in Thailand eroded Ford’s profits.

Investors punished the stock in pre-market trading, where shares fell nearly 5 percent to $12.14.

Ford earned $13.6 billion in the fourth quarter, due to a decision to move deferred tax assets back onto its books. Without that change, the company’s pre-tax operating profit totaled $1.1 billion, or 20 cents per share, missing analysts’ forecasts of 25 cents.

The company lost money in Europe and Asia in the fourth quarter. But its North American operating profit rose 33 percent to $889 million.

“The quarter was really driven by North America,” Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth said.

Booth also said November flooding in Thailand, which affected its parts suppliers, had a greater impact than the company expected. Ford lost 34,000 units of production in Thailand and in South Africa, which relies on Thai-made parts. He said the company also saw higher costs for steel and other commodities. Ford spent $2.3 billion more on commodities in 2011 than the prior year, or $100 million more than it had forecast.

Europe’s debt crisis weighed on car sales in that region.

For the full year, the Dearborn-based company made $20.2 billion, or $4.94 per share. Without the accounting gain, it earned $8.76 billion, or $1.51 per share, its highest operating profit since 1999. Full year revenue rose 13 percent to $136.3 billion.

Analysts had forecast full-year earnings of $1.86 per share on revenue of $127.31 billion.

Based on its full-year North American results, Ford said it will make profit-sharing payments of around $6,200 each to its 41,600 U short term personal loans.S. hourly employees. Employees will get their checks in March.

Ford moved $15.7 billion worth of tax credits and other assets off its books starting in 2006 because it wasn’t making money so it couldn’t take advantage of them. The company moved most of them back onto its books in the fourth quarter because it anticipates using them now that it’s profitable.

The change will affect Ford’s tax rates going forward. Ford’s tax rate was 9 percent in 2010 because of the assets that were being held in the valuation allowance account. Ford’s new rate will be closer to 30 percent.

Booth said the change is a strong indication that the company expects to remain profitable. Another is Ford’s decision last month to reinstate a 5-cent quarterly dividend starting in March.

But Booth said the international climate remains turbulent. Ford is trying to hold the line on incentive spending in Europe, but that could cost some sales. He doesn’t expect Asia to be a solid contributor to profits for several more years, as the company tries to expand there. The South American market is also getting more competitive, he said, and Ford’s products there are older than some new entries.

Ford is cutting European production in the first quarter by 36,000 vehicles because of weak sales. It’s also making smaller production cuts in Asia and South America, but is increasing production in North America by 18,000 vehicles.

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Fiat SpA (F), PSA Peugeot Citroen (UG) and Renault SA (RNO) led a fourth consecutive year of car sales declines across Europe as consumer confidence fell and unemployment remained at record levels.

The Greek government and its creditors return to the negotiating table this week to revive stalled talks on a debt swap as German Chancellor Angela Merkel places pressure on both sides to forge a deal.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said two days ago that talks with the Institute of International Finance will resume on Jan. 18. The Washington-based IIF, which represents banks holding the bonds, said on Jan. 14 there is a

With the worst recent financial record in the industry and poisonous labor relations, American Airlines wasn’t a very attractive target for buyers.

That view is changing now that American and parent AMR Corp. are reorganizing under the bankruptcy process at the same time that most other airlines have returned to profitability. Mergers have reduced competition and helped drive up fares.

Suddenly, American Airlines is in play. US Airways Group Inc. has hired advisers to study AMR, according to a source familiar with the situation, and reports say that Delta Air Lines Inc. and buyout firm TPG Capital are also weighing bids. None of the companies would comment.

Industry insiders expect every major U.S. airline to take a look at AMR. Despite losing money every year since 2008 and missing out on the airline merger mania of the past few years, American is still the world’s third-biggest carrier by passenger traffic. In bankruptcy, AMR could shed billions in debt, reduce its costs and still afford new planes _ a trifecta that has caught the eye of rivals.

“Everybody has to be thinking about how to deal with AMR in two years,” said Darryl Jenkins, a consultant who has worked for airlines on previous mergers. “They will be the most efficient carrier with a new fleet. They’re going to be very desirable.”

AMR’s CEO has said the best course for American is to remain independent. But if another airline makes an offer that sounds good to creditors and the bankruptcy judge, then it could make more sense for AMR to simply sell itself.

Wolfe Trahan & Co. analyst Hunter Keay put the chances of AMR emerging from bankruptcy as a stand-alone airline at no better than 20 percent. He thinks that with Delta’s access to borrowing and US Airway’s connections to deep-pocketed TPG, there could even be a bidding war for AMR.

Several other airlines or other suitors could pursue AMR. Each combination would carry its own pros and cons:

_ US Airways would get needed size. In the last few years, it failed in bids to buy or merge with Delta and United and now finds itself the nation’s fifth-largest airline.

“The combination that makes the most sense is US Airways with American because they both need a bigger presence to appeal to business travelers,” said Saranthi Syth, an analyst for Raymond James Financial Inc.

The US Airways hub in Philadelphia could help American expand service from the eastern U.S. to Europe and take pressure off American’s trans-Atlantic bottleneck at New York’s Kennedy Airport, said Bob McAdoo, an airline analyst for Avondale Partners.

Other analysts, however, said US Airways wouldn’t offer much help in key markets such as Asia, where American is weaker than United and Delta. Its hubs, including Charlotte, N.C., and Phoenix, are in the kind of secondary cities from which American has been retreating. And such a deal would merge two airlines with already poor labor relations and pilots represented by different unions.

US Airways has not yet discussed a merger directly with American, but has hired investment adviser Jim Millstein and Barclays Capital to study how a deal might look, a source with knowledge of the situation said free online credit report. This person requested anonymity because the status of the airline’s examination of American has not been publicly disclosed.

_ Delta would love to get American’s routes in Latin America, but analysts think a combination of these two would be too big to win regulatory approval without major divestitures _ both are already big in New York, for example. That has some experts thinking that Delta is only interested in cherry-picking parts of AMR if it is broken up.

_ United Continental Holdings Inc., the world’s biggest airline, would benefit by adding American’s operations at London’s Heathrow Airport. But a United bid would face the same _ or even tougher _ regulatory scrutiny than a Delta offer, and the company is still busy absorbing Continental. But few would be surprised if United is intrigued.

“If Delta is going to take a look at AMR, United will take a look at AMR,” said Sterne Agee analyst Jeff Kauffman.

_ TPG Capital would have one advantage: not being an airline, it would presumably face fewer regulatory hurdles. It has worked amicably with AMR and its new CEO. But it’s not clear how a buyer that’s not an airline will help boost AMR revenue and some analysts don’t believe TPG will be a serious bidder in the end.

American’s labor unions, despite a history of poor relations with management, are wary of a takeover. James C. Little, president of the Transport Workers Union, which represents American’s mechanics and other ground workers, said he fears that a buyer would send aircraft-overhaul work overseas. American employees do most of that work in the U.S., while rival airlines have outsourced it.

For now, at least publicly, American Airlines is taking the position that it would prefer to remain independent.

New CEO Thomas Horton, in a letter to employees two weeks after the bankruptcy filing, said “opportunists” might try to buy the company while it’s down but that “the best path for American is the one that leads us back to the top.”

McAdoo, the Avondale analyst, thinks American will most likely remain independent because its labor unions and new CEO might prefer that to being bought by another airline that has its own unions and CEO.

“Here’s a guy (Horton) who just got promoted to CEO,” McAdoo said. “Is he going to want to give up that title, and pair up with a company where he isn’t the CEO?”

Gordon Bethune, a former Continental Airlines CEO who evaluated offers for Delta during that airline’s bankruptcy, said AMR greatly helped its chances of remaining independent by filing for Chapter 11 when it still had $4 billion in cash _ enough to buy time.

“They don’t need financing,” Bethune said. “They don’t need to go begging and get involved with somebody they don’t want to get involved with.”

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy meet today for the first time in 2012 as they seek to craft a master plan for rescuing the euro over the next three months.

The two leaders gather in Berlin to flesh out a new rulebook for fiscal discipline negotiated at a Dec. 9 summit that seeks to create a

Employment grew solidly last month and the jobless rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent, offering the strongest evidence yet of an acceleration in economic activity.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 200,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday, the most in three months and way above economists’ expectations for a 150,000 gain.

The economy needs to sustain the current pace of job creation to signal a robust recovery is finally under way.

The unemployment rate dropped from a revised 8.7 percent in November, which was previously reported as 8.6 percent. The jobless rate is now the lowest since February 2009.

“This highlights that the U.S. economy is on its way to recovery even as strains in Europe persist,” said David Watt, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital in Toronto.

Stocks index futures extended gains on the data, while prices for Treasury debt fell. The dollar rose against the euro.

Signs the labor market is gaining traction could offer some comfort for the Obama administration, whose economic policies are constantly attacked by the Republicans.

The state of the labor market could determine whether President Barack Obama gets re-elected in November.

The report cemented views that growth in the fourth quarter accelerated after a tepid performance in the first 9 months of the year.

A string of better-than-expected U.S. economic indicators in recent weeks has highlighted a contrast between the recovery in the world’s biggest economy and Europe, which is already widely believed to be in recession and probably faces worse to come.

Though the payrolls count for October and November was revised to show 8,000 fewer jobs created than previously reported, there is no denying the labor market is recovering.

The separate household survey, from which the jobless rate is derived, showed gains in employment and a modest decline in the labor force, helping to lower the jobless rate.

A broad measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have stopped looking and those working only part time but who want more work, dropped to an almost three-year low of 15.2 percent from 15.6 percent in November.

Still, the economy needs even faster pace of job growth over a sustained period to make a noticeable dent in the pool of the 23.7 million Americans who remain either out of work or underemployed since the end of the 2007-09 recession business card design.

With the labor market still far from healthy, the debt crisis in Europe unresolved and tensions over Iran threatening to drive up oil prices, the U.S. economy faces stiff headwinds.

Economists predict the recovery will lose a step early this year after expanding in the fourth quarter at what is expected to be the fastest pace in 1-1/2 years.

This should keep alive the possibility of the Federal Reserve embarking on a third round of asset purchases, or quantitative easing, to spur stronger growth.

GOVERNMENT A DRAG

All the job gains in December came from the private sector, where payrolls rose 212,000 - the most in three months. Government employment contracted 12,000.

For all of 2011, the private sector added 1.9 million jobs, while government employment fell 280,000.

A measure of the share of industries that showed job gains during the month rebounded after falling sharply in November.

There were job gains in construction, where unseasonably mild weather has boosted groundbreaking for new homes. Construction payrolls increased 17,000 after falling 12,000 in November.

Transportation and warehousing also got a boost from the mild temperatures, with employment jumping 50,200.

The bulk of the transportation increase came from the courier and messenger industry, which rose 42,000, probably reflecting gains from online purchases during the holiday season.

Manufacturing jobs rose 23,000, the largest gain since July. Factory employment rose 225,000 last year.

Retail employment rose 27,900 after hefty gains in November as retailers geared for a busy holiday shopping season.

Healthcare and social assistance increased 28,7000 after rising 20,200 in November. But temporary hiring - seen as a harbinger of future hiring - fell 7,500 in December after gaining 11,200.

Even though employment picked up last month, hourly earnings rose a modest four cents, indicating that most of the jobs being created are low paying. The high unemployment rate also means wages cannot grow much.

This is a potentially troubling sign for consumer spending, which has been largely supported by a reduction in savings.

The average workweek rose to 34.4 hours from 34.3 hours in November.

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Stocks were eking out small gains Tuesday on mixed economic news. Consumer confidence surged to an eight-month high, but home prices dropped in major cities. Sears plummeted after reporting that it would close more than 100 stores around the country.

In the latest sign of a bumpy recovery in the housing market, home prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index. Atlanta, Detroit and Minneapolis posted the biggest declines. Prices in Atlanta and Las Vegas fell to their lowest points since the housing crisis began.

That report dampened investors’ enthusiasm about a jump in consumer confidence to the highest level since April. The New York-based Conference Board reported that its Consumer Confidence Index rose almost 10 points to 64.5 in December. Economists watch the numbers closely because consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

Henry Herrmann, chief executive officer at the investment management firm Waddell & Reed, said the increase reflected the fact that more jobs have been created in recent weeks, which will likely lead to “a more sustained” economic recovery.

“If job creation will come with wage improvement in the coming weeks, it will boost confidence further,” Herrmann said.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 17 points at 12,311 as of noon Eastern. The S&P 500 was up less than 2 points at 1,267. The Nasdaq composite was off 7 points at 2,626.

The stock market was closed Monday in observance of Christmas. Stocks are expected to trade within a narrow range this week as trading remains light.

The Dow average closed at a five-month high last week after a run of strong economic data in the U.S. However analysts expect any market gains to be tempered by worries over the European debt crisis.

Italy’s borrowing costs rose Tuesday, reflecting investor anxiety. The yield on the country’s ten-year bonds hit 7 percent again, a level that is considered unsustainable in the long run. Greece, Ireland and Portugal had to seek relief from their lenders after their own borrowing costs rose to that level.

Italy is the euro zone’s third-largest economy and is considered too big to bail out. Mario Monti, the country’s new premier, got parliamentary approval last week for a big austerity package that is intended to save the country from financial disaster.

Markets have grown increasingly fearful over the past few months that Italy will find it difficult to pay off its massive debts, which stand at around $2.5 trillion.

In corporate news:

_ Sears Holding Corp. plunged 23 percent to $35.04, the most in the S&P 500, after the retailer announced plans to close between 100 and 120 Sears and Kmart stores after poor sales during the holidays, the most crucial time of year for retailers.

_ U.S. oil and gas explorer Endeavour International Corp. rose 15 percent to $7.40 after the company announced an agreement to buy ConocoPhillips’ interest in three U.K. oil fields in the Central North Sea for $330 million.

_ MetLife Inc. rose 1 percent to $31.61 after saying it will sell its U.S. retail deposit business to GE Capital as it moves away from being a bank holding company.

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