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Briefcase

North America provides boost for Ford in quarter

DEARBORN, Mich. – North America was the only region where Ford Motor Co. saw profits rise in the fourth quarter and in all of 2011. Everywhere else the automaker lost money or saw profits fall, hurt by nervous consumers in Europe, flooding in Asia and aging products in South America. Costs rose faster than expected, too.

On Friday Ford reported $13.62 billion in net income, but investors brushed off the result because most of that came from an accounting change. Excluding that change, earnings totaled $1.1 billion, or 20 cents a share, down 15 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. Ford missed Wall Street’s expectations by 5 cents a share.

The stock price took an early hit but recovered once the company promised better – if still bumpy – results in 2012. Shares fell 4 percent to close at $12.21.

Ford’s operating margin – a measure of how much the company earned after all the costs of doing business – fell to 2.2 percent from 3 percent in 2010, largely because of commodity costs.

North American operating profits rose 33 percent to $889 million in the fourth quarter. For the full year, North American profits rose 15 percent to $6.2 billion.

Associated Press

Flight attendants, US Airways close to deal

NEW YORK – US Airways Group Inc. says it has a tentative agreement with negotiators for the union representing 6,700 flight attendants across its main network.

The agreement, if approved, will bring the workers together for the first time since US Airways combined with America West in 2005. They’ve been working under separate contracts.

Details of the deal were not disclosed. The company and the thousands of in-flight crew had been negotiating with the help of a federal mediator.

The flight attendants are based in Phoenix, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., and Washington, D.C.

The Association of Flight Attendants Master Executive Council must approve the tentative agreement before it can be sent to its members for a vote.

The deal does not include US Airways Express flight attendants.

Associated Press