People Make Business

DALLAS — AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, said Wednesday that it lost $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter as it wrote down the value of planes and other property and paid more for jet fuel.

The company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in November, said that the results compared with a loss of $97 million a year earlier, when AMR still hoped to avoid bankruptcy by cutting costs.

The most recent loss included $768 million in special items, including $725 million from write-downs of aircraft that the company had announced two weeks ago. It also took a $43 million hit as it changed assumptions on recognition of revenue in its frequent-flier program.

Excluding special items, AMR said it would have lost $209 million, compared to an after-items loss of $69 million a year ago.

American is the nation’s third-biggest airline, and it has presented a business-as-usual face since becoming the latest in a long string of U.S. airlines to file for bankruptcy protection. E Read more…

Nucor Corp. today reported higher fourth-quarter and full-year earnings for 2011 compared with 2010, citing an uptick in steel prices in December and increased shipments.

The Charlotte-based steelmaker reported consolidated net earnings of $137.1 million, or 43 cents per diluted share, in the fourth quarter, compared with a net loss of $11.4 million, or 4 cents per diluted share, for the same period a year earlier. For the full year, Nucor reported net earnings of $778.2 million, or $2.45 per diluted share, compared with 2010 earnings of $134.1 million, or 42 cents per diluted share.

Nucor recorded a noncash gain of $29 million, or 6 cents per diluted share, in the fourth quarter to correct an actuarial calculation related to the medical plan covering certain eligible early retirees.

Net sales in the fourth quarter rose 25 percent over the same period in 2010, to $4.83 billion from $3.85 billion, and exceeded expectations of $4.77 billion of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

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HOUSTON (AP) — Texas financier R. Allen Stanford lied to investors and stole their hard-earned savings so he could live the lavish lifestyle of a billionaire, a prosecutor said Tuesday at his fraud trial.

Prosecutor Gregg Costa told jurors in Houston federal court that Stanford used investors’ money to buy homes and yachts and fund cricket matches.

“He treated depositors’ savings like it was his own personal piggy bank,” Costa said.

The prosecution says Stanford’s business empire was built on smoke and mirrors and he bilked investors out of more than $7 billion over 20 years as part of a massive Ponzi scheme centered on sales of certificates of deposit from an Antiguan bank he owned.

Stanford, who denies the claims and says his businesses were legitimate, is charged with 14 counts, including wire and mail fraud. H

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AP Photos In 16-degree weather on Jan. 3, Mazza Vineyards distiller Joe Nelson picks frozen vidal blanc grapes at one of Mazza’s vineyards near Cemetery Road in North East Township, which is near North East. Mazza Vineyards co-owner Bob Mazza expected his crew to pick about 225 crates of grapes Jan. 3 to make ice wine, a specialty dessert wine that requires grapes to be picked when temperatures are in the mid-teens. Overall, however, the weather this winter has not been cold enough for much of the harvest.

Vidal grapes hang on the vine covered in snow waiting to be harvested and pressed for ice wine in Branchport, N.Y. Winery and vineyard operators from Michigan to New York and parts of Canada have waited nervously for temperatures to get low enough to harvest the tender fruit.

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Newly public WPX Energy Inc. named its first-ever board of directors Monday, a list that includes longtime oil and gas executives but no current officials from former parent company Williams Cos. Inc.

Former BP Amoco and Williams Director William Lowrie heads the WPX board as chairman. The other nine members were elected Dec. 30, including WPX CEO Ralph Hill.

“The names are well known in energy and regulatory circles,” Hill said in a statement. “We’re talking about outstanding credentials, recognized leadership, a depth of executive experience and an appreciation for the dynamics in the E&P space.”

Joining Lowrie and Hill on the board are Kimberly Bowers, John Carrig, William Granberry, Don Gunther, Robert Herdman, Henry Lentz, George Lorch and David Work.

WPX Energy was created when Tulsa-based Williams spun off its exploration and production unit to shareholders late last year. Read more…

DURHAM Duke Energy and Progress Energy expect to submit a new proposal for their corporate merger this month as the North Carolina power companies make a third attempt to appease federal monopoly concerns.

Progress CEO Bill Johnson, who would run the combined Duke Energy out of Charlotte, said Tuesday that the trick will be to preserve the $650 million in savings promised to regulators in the Carolinas while also selling off a sizable chunk of electricity into wholesale markets to appease federal regulators.

“None of this is easy,” Johnson said. “Part of the modeling process is: What would you sell and at what price, and who would buy it?”

Johnson provided an update on the status of the merger, announced one year ago, during a break at the Economic Forecast Forum in Durham. Johnson was a keynote speaker at the forum, which is sponsored by the N.C. Bankers Association and N.C.

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