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Soaring oil prices helped Exxon Mobil post a slightly higher fourth-quarter profit. But a slowdown in production and lower natural gas prices are worrying investors.

Exxon’s oil and natural gas production fell 9 percent during the quarter. The drop came even after the company spent a record $36.8 billion last year to explore for more energy. Exxon’s stock price fell $1.74, or 2 percent, to $83.75 a share in midday trade.

Exploration can take years to yield more oil and gas. Some of Exxon’s biggest investments recently have been in U.S. natural gas fields, which so far haven’t paid off because prices are at the lowest level in a decade.

Its $29 billion acquisition of XTO Energy two years ago has been a disappointment, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit said.

The deal, which overnight made Exxon America’s biggest natural gas producer, hasn’t generated the kind of profits that investors expected.

Gheit said the company needs to consider cutting production. “They don’t want to have dead wood dragging them down,” he said.

The business Exxon is best known for, oil, drove results during the quarter. In the final three months of the year, the company sold crude for 27 percent more than a year earlier.

That boosted net income to $9.4 billion, or $1.97 per share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $9.25 billion, or $1.85 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose nearly 16 percent to $121.6 billion.

Exxon produced an average of 4.5 million barrels of oil and natural gas a day. That’s nearly twice as much as Chevron Corp., America’s second-largest petroleum company.

But the output is less than what Exxon’s wells produced the year before. That’s partly because some of fields matured and produced less. Also, many contracts in foreign countries limit the amount of oil that Exxon can keep and sell as prices rise.

Earnings in Exxon’s exploration and production business rose 18 percent thanks to higher prices.

But those same prices hurt its refining business, where income dropped 63 percent. The refineries have struggled to pass along to customers the higher cost of oil used for gasoline, diesel and other fuels. That’s because demand is slowing in many parts of the world.

Stricter rules on car and truck fuel economy are expected to keep demand low for years in the U.S. and Europe.

As result, large oil and gas companies have been shedding refining operations, especially in developed markets.

Exxon announced Sunday that it is selling its Japanese refining and marketing business to partner TonenGeneral Sekiyu K.K. for $3.9 billion following an extended slide in Japanese fuel demand. The deal is expected to close mid-year.

Exxon’s chemicals business saw profits decline 49 percent.

For the full year, Exxon’s net income rose 34.8 percent while revenue rose 26.9 percent.

Last week, Chevron Corp. said profits slipped 3.2 percent. ConocoPhillips reported a 66-percent increase in quarterly earnings, though much of that came from the sale of a pipeline and other assets. Royal Dutch Shell expects to report its financial results later this week.

Shares of Exxon Mobil Corp. fell 91 cents to $84.58 in early trading.

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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said the Fed probably won

Companies added more workers than forecast in December, a sign that the U.S. labor market was gaining momentum heading into 2012, according to a private report based on payrolls.

The 325,000 increase was the highest in records going back to 2001 and exceeded the highest projection in a Bloomberg News survey after a revised 204,000 gain the prior month, the report from the Roseland, New Jersey-based ADP Employer Services showed today. The median estimate called for an advance of 178,000.

An acceleration in hiring may spur further gains in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the world

Germany’s finance minister says he is confident that Europe’s politicians will manage to stabilize the eurozone in 2012 and keep the continent’s common currency together.

Wolfgang Schaeuble acknowledged in an interview with business daily Handelsblatt published Friday that major problems that have built up over a long time remain to be tackled in some countries.

However, he added, “I think we will be far enough along in the next 12 months that we will have banished the dangers of contagion and stabilized the eurozone.”

Asked whether he could rule out the 17-nation eurozone breaking up, Schaeuble was quoted as saying: “According to everything that I know at the moment, yes.” He insisted that Europe’s politicians “are doing everything to prevent the common currency falling apart.”

“Of course, the European Union cannot force anyone to stay in if they don’t want to belong any more,” he added. “But no such development can be seen at the moment.”

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is a key player in the long-running battle to stem the eurozone debt crisis. It has backed the strategy of getting governments to embark on often-savage austerity measures to reduce deficits.

But it has opposed measures such as issuing jointly backed eurobonds and argued that there is no quick fix to the crisis, expressing great skepticism about the wisdom of a major government bond-buying drive by the European Central Bank that is advocated by many as a way of forcing down struggling countries’ borrowing costs guaranteed fast personal loans.

“The talk of bazookas and the like only leads to us not tackling sustainably the causes of the crisis,” Schaeuble was quoted as saying.

The eurozone will quickly face new challenges in 2012, with both Italy and Spain needing to borrow large amounts of money early in the new year. Both countries face high borrowing costs.

Schaeuble acknowledged that Europe’s refinancing needs in early 2012 are “not trivial.”

“But the more we win back confidence on the markets, the more investors … will invest in the eurozone, and not just in German bonds,” he said. “There is no shortage of money worldwide.”

“In case of doubt, a somewhat higher interest rate has to be paid for some government bonds,” Schaeuble said. “That is not damaging per se and also can encourage the understanding that we have to tackle the actual causes of the crisis: overly high debts and a lack of competitiveness.”

Schaeuble said he sees no sign of a credit crunch in Germany. Asked about other countries, he pointed to the ECB’s moves to provide massive long-term loans to banks.

“Given the measures the ECB has taken to provide banks with liquidity, it is hard to imagine that banks would not be in a position to provide sufficient loans to business,” he said.

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The owner of the recently renamed Fontainebleau Apartments for Seniors in University City are trying to take it back to the future. Brentmoor Retirement Communities restored the complex’s original name this month, and it is renovating its older apartments and offering residents more economical rental plans.

“You’ll pay only for what you want,” said Denise Niemann, Fontainebleau’s executive director. “We came up with this concept in response to our seniors’ financial woes.”

Until this year, residents of the apartments at 1001 North Mc-Knight Road, known as Brentmoor Place before the switch, were required to buy a full independent living package that included some meals and activities fees. Monthly rental fees were at least $2,000.

Options still include transportation, housekeeping and parking, for those residents who drive. But the recession has had several residents worried that they wouldn’t be able to make their payments and might have to move, Niemann said.

The new a la carte pricing allows residents to skip the meals and other extras if they desire. Apartments at Fontainebleau now are available for as low as $1,390 a month.

When the Fontainebleau complex was built nearly 50 years ago, it was marketed as an upscale apartment building for everyone. But by the mid-1990s, nearly 90 percent of its residents were over age 70, and it was being advertised as a senior living complex for independent older people.

The property, acquired in 1996 by Brentmoor Retirement Communities, was renamed Brentmoor Place and converted to a seniors-only, limited-service retirement community business card.

By 2007, Brentmoor Place had become an all-inclusive, full-service community, providing meals, transportation and housekeeping for its residents.

Now, the a la carte pricing allows options while maintaining a social environment for residents, who are required to be at least 62 years old.

Niemann said Fontainebleau’s age gives it one distinctive advantage over many newer buildings. “This is a concrete building, so you hear almost no noise from other apartments,” she said. “It’s built like Fort Knox.”

She said that the apartment complex had been known over the years for its social programs and activities and that those would continue. “It’s brain-stimulating; it’s computer classes and trivia events, for example,” she said.

A group of men who live there organized the MOB group, short for Men of Brentmoor, several years ago. “They get out at least once a month and go to places like Crown Candy Kitchen and other St. Louis landmarks,” Niemann said.

A longtime MOB member, Mark Margolies, is a resident coordinator for group activities and helps other residents resolve any concerns. “It gives me something to do,” said Margolies, 75.

He said he has enjoyed living there. “I have no complaints,” he said. “I like the convenience of the apartments, the location and the staff.”

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Last minute shoppers gave merchants a solid lift during the final week before Christmas, according to a report from a mall trade group Wednesday.

Revenue at stores open at least a year rose 0.9 percent for the week ended Saturday compared with the previous week. That is also up 3.4 percent from the week before, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index.

Revenue at stores opened at least a year for the week ended Saturday rose 4.5 percent compared with the same period a year ago. The index serves as a sales proxy to 24 major stores including Macy’s Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp.

“The downs and ups were much more accentuated,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the council. “It just shows how cautious the consumer is. Consumers are bargain hunters more today than ever before personal loan for poor credit.”

For the week ended on Nov. 26, which included the traditional start of the holiday shopping season on the day after Thanksgiving, stores had the biggest sales surge compared with the prior week since 1993, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs weekly index. The cumulative two-week-sales drop-off that followed marked the biggest percentage decline since 2000. Then, during the final two weeks before Christmas, sales surged again, by the highest rate since 2005, Niemira says.

“The holiday season was good but uneven,” Niemira said.

ICSC expects that holiday sales for the November and December combined will be in line with its forecast of 3.5

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The road has been heavily patched, and there’s no room to pull over to change a tire.

Welcome to the twin Interstate 270 bridges over the Chain of Rocks Canal, the 8½-mile, manmade bypass to the Mississippi River.

The Illinois Department of Transportation will soon replace the aging spans in Madison County. Built in 1963, the truss bridges are in need of repair and are too narrow to accommodate more lanes in the future.

Walsh Construction Co. of Chicago has been awarded a $104 million contract to build the new four-lane bridge, which will be just north of the existing bridges.

Traffic will remain on the existing bridges while the new span is built, said Paul Grabowski, an engineer at the Illinois Department of Transportation. He predicted “minimal” effects on traffic while construction is under way. The new bridge should be open to traffic by December 2013.

The plan stands in sharp contrast to the one being used by the Missouri Department of Transportation to renovate the westbound Blanchette Bridge span over the Missouri River between St. Charles and St. Louis counties.

That project, which is also being carried out by Walsh Construction, will require eastbound and westbound traffic to temporarily share the current eastbound span.

For the Illinois bridge, Grabowski said, some earthwork already has begun on Chouteau Island, between the Mississippi River and the canal, in preparation for temporary lanes. Earth is also being moved near the western abutment.

The new bridge will have room for a third lane in the future. Until then, the bridge will have two lanes and an extra merging lane cash advance loan no fax.

Grabowski said the deck was in poor condition and the structural steel needed repair.

The truss spans over Chain of Rocks Canal are similar to the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis in 2007. But Grabowski said it was structurally adequate.

The new bridge will be a single span and will resemble the Poplar Street Bridge.

Glenn Scott of Wildwood drives over the two bridges every day while making his 49-mile commute to work in the Metro East.

Although he travels in the opposite direction of the heaviest commuter traffic, he has been caught in traffic jams when highway crews make frequent repairs. That kind of work is usually done at nonpeak times of day.

“It definitely is one of the worst sections of road I drive on on any kind of regular basis,” Scott said. “As often as they’ve worked on that section of roadway, you’d think it would be in pristine shape. But it’s really pretty rough.”

The new I-270 bridge will cross the Chain of Rocks Canal, which opened in 1954. The canal allows barge traffic to bypass a treacherous reach of the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis.

Illinois is awaiting necessary permits from the Army Corps of Engineers. Mike Petersen, a spokesman for the corps, said the agency was reviewing the project before granting IDOT a temporary easement to begin construction.

The current I-270 bridges over the Chain of Rocks Canal carry nearly 55,000 cars a day.

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