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Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday that fourth-quarter profit was barely a tenth what it made a year ago as a slew of charges for recalls, litigation and an acquisition dragged down income. But the health care giant’s revenue jumped last year, ending an unprecedented two-year decline.

After two tough years overshadowed by an embarrassing series of product recalls and other problems, the maker of Tylenol, prescription drugs and medical devices managed to beat Wall Street’s forecast for adjusted profit and came in just below its revenue forecast.

The company said net income was $218 million, or 8 cents per share, down from $1.94 billion, or 70 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding charges, net income was $3.13 billion, or $1.13 per share.

Revenue totaled $16.26 billion, up from $15.64 billion in 2010’s fourth quarter.

Analysts polled by FactSet, on average, expected earnings per share of $1.09 and revenue of $16.28 billion.

“We delivered solid results for 2011, built on the strong growth of our recently launched pharmaceutical products, and continued the steady momentum of new product approvals across all our businesses,” CEO Bill Weldon said in a statement.

Revenue fell 3.4 percent in the U.S., to $6.99 billion, but jumped 10.2 percent in foreign countries, to $9.27 billion. The U.S. decline was mostly due to an 8 percent drop in sales of prescription drugs.

J&J said it expects 2012 earnings of $5.05 to $5.15 per share, excluding special items. Analysts had expected $5.20 per share.

In morning trading, shares of the company rose 23 cents to $65.23.

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Asian stock markets rose Wednesday as expectations that China will loosen its monetary policy to boost growth overcame nervousness sparked by mixed earnings reports from big U.S. banks.

Benchmark oil rose above $101 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.4 percent to 8,579.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.3 percent to 19,685.87. South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.2 percent at 1,888.88 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.2 percent at 4,223.60.

Benchmarks in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia rose while mainland China and Taiwan fell.

Investors cheered news out of China on Tuesday when the government said its economy slowed less dramatically in the fourth quarter than feared _ but still enough of a slowdown to persuade investors that Beijing will pursue a pro-growth monetary policy, analysts said.

“People have been buying stocks in anticipation of a relaxation in monetary policy by the Chinese government,” said Derek Cheung, chief investment officer at Neutron INV Partners Ltd. in Hong Kong. “The market expects this around Chinese New Year. If China doesn’t loosen around the new year, the market may come under pressure.” The holiday begins Jan. 23.

China is one of the biggest importers and slower growth could have global repercussions if it cuts demand for iron ore, industrial components and other goods from Australia, Brazil, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

It would also mean less demand for U.S. and European capital goods for Chinese factories and construction sites, and smaller profits for U.S. and European companies that do business here. The luxury goods industry would also feel a significant pinch, since China is just about the only growth market for those.

Commodities shares jumped on the growth data out of China. Australian miners Fortescue Metals Group jumped 5 percent and Rio Tinto Ltd Low fee payday loans. added 1.5 percent after both companies reported target-beating production figures Tuesday.

But some financial shares came under pressure on weak quarterly earnings from some U.S. banks, including Citigroup Inc., which said its fourth-quarter income fell 11 percent due in part to lower investment banking income and an accounting charge.

Australia & New Zealand Banking Group fell 1.1 percent and Hong Kong-listed Agricultural Bank of China also lost 1.1 percent.

South Korean high-tech shares also slumped. Samsung Electronics Co., the top global manufacturer of flat screen televisions, memory chips and liquid crystal displays, fell 0.9 percent. LG Electronics shed 1.8 percent, and Hynix Semiconductor was 1.2 percent lower.

European shares ended mostly higher Tuesday on the heels of short-term debt auctions by Spain, Greece and Europe’s bailout fund that drew strong investor demand, despite recent credit rating downgrades by Standard & Poor’s.

Many had feared the downgrades would prevent them from obtaining funds and worsen a sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.5 percent to close at 12,482.07. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 0.4 percent to 1,293.67. The Nasdaq composite index added 0.6 percent to 2,728.08.

Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 66 cents to $101.37 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract finished at $100.71 per barrel in New York on Tuesday.

In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.2779 from $1.2722 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 76.65 yen from 76.82 yen.

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The job market is looking a little brighter at the start of the new year.

Weekly unemployment benefit applications have fallen to levels last seen more than three years ago. Holiday sales were solid. Service companies grew a little faster in December. And many small businesses say they plan to add jobs over the next three months.

The mix of private and government data released Thursday sketched a picture of an economy that is slowly strengthening, stoking optimism one day ahead of the government’s important read on December job growth.

“Businesses have increased hiring to meet the underlying pick-up in (consumer) demand,” said Neil Dutta, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The mostly positive reports had little impact on financial markets. Traders seemed more focused on the debt crisis in Europe, which could slow U.S. growth later this year. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 37 points in midday trading. Broader indexes were mixed.

Weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 372,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s 11 percent lower than the same time last year.

The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, fell to 373,250 _ the lowest level since June 2008.

When applications drop below 375,000 _ consistently _ they generally signal that hiring is strong enough to reduce the unemployment rate.

Steven Wood, an economist at Insight Economics, said applications last year averaged 411,000 per week, down from 459,000 per week in 2010.

That’s “a clear indication that the pace of layoffs has slowed,” Wood said.

U.S. service firms, which employ roughly 90 percent of the work force, grew a little faster in December, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

The trade group of purchasing managers said its index of non-manufacturing activity rose to 52.6. That’s slightly above November’s reading of 52 _ the lowest in nearly two years _ but well below last year’s high of 59.7 recorded in February.

Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

An increase in new orders and stronger imports drove last month’s modest expansion. But a gauge of hiring showed many service firms were hesitant to add workers no fax payday advance.

Retailers, meanwhile, reported solid but not spectacular sales gains last month. And much of the increase stemmed from heavy discounting that will likely cut into profits.

Sales rose 3.5 percent in December for a group of 25 retail chains tracked by the International Council of Shopping Centers. Holiday sales, which cover the last two months of the year, rose 3.3 percent, a decent rise but less than last year’s gain.

Small businesses remain encouraged about their plans to hire over the next three months. The National Federation of Independent Business says the proportion of those firms that expect to add workers is slightly off from the three-year high hit last month.

Economists are predicting that overall hiring increased in December and will strengthen this year.

John Ryding, an economist at RDQ Economics, forecasts that employers added 180,000 jobs last month, a big jump from November’s 120,000 net jobs.

Economists surveyed by the Associated Press project that the economy will generate an average of 175,000 jobs per month this year. That would be a step up from average monthly gains of 130,000 last year and 78,000 in 2010.

In November, the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent from 9 percent. Still, about half that decline occurred because many of the unemployed gave up looking for work. When people stop looking for a job, they’re no longer counted as unemployed.

The pickup in hiring reflects some modest improvement in the economy. Growth will likely top 3 percent at an annual rate in the final three months of this year, economists expect. That would be a sharp improvement over the 1.8 percent growth in the July-September quarter.

Even so, many economists forecast that growth could slow to roughly 2 percent this year. Europe is almost certain to fall into recession because of its financial troubles. And without more jobs and higher incomes, consumers may have to cut back on spending. That could drag on growth in 2012.

___

AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.

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Lowe’s is planning to stick by its decision to yank its ads from a reality TV show about American Muslims despite the growing opposition the home improvement chain is facing over the move.

California Sen. Ted Lieu put a statement out on Sunday that he is considering calling for a boycott of Lowe’s Cos., sparking criticism of the chain from both inside and outside of the Muslim community.

On social media web site Twitter, actor Kal Penn is began directing people to a petition on signon.org in support of the TLC cable network show, “All-American Muslim.” By Monday afternoon, there were about 9,200 signatures.

On Monday, U.S. Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, who is Muslim, released a statement condemning Lowe’s for choosing “to uphold the beliefs of a fringe hate group and not the creed of The First Amendment.”

And Democratic state Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit, the first Muslim elected to the Michigan Legislature, voiced her concerns directly with the company. She wrote a letter to Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock.

“I told them I was extremely disappointed that you give credibility to these hate groups,” Tlaib said. “People of Muslim faith are being attacked. It’s disappointing, disheartening.”

Meanwhile, Lowe’s, based in Mooresville, N.C., said it stands by its Sunday statement that it pulled the ads after the show became a “lightning rod for people to voice complaints from a variety of perspectives - political, social and otherwise.” The company also said that “dozens” of other advertisers pulled their advertising from the show.

“All-American Muslim” premiered last month and chronicles the lives of five families who live in and near Dearborn, Mich., a Detroit suburb with a large Muslim and Arab-American population. TLC spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg said “All-American Muslim,” which airs on Mondays on TLC and ends its first season on Jan. 8, has garnered a little over a million viewers per week.

“We stand behind the show All American Muslim and we’re happy the show has strong advertising support,” she said.

Lowe’s stopped running commercials during “All-American Muslim” after a conservative group known as the Florida Family Association e-mailed companies to ask them to stop advertising on the show. The group said the program is “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.”

Florida Family Association, based in Tampa, Fla., said that more than 60 advertisers that it e-mailed, from Amazon to McDonalds, have also stopped advertising on the show. But so far, Lowe’s is the only major company to confirm that it pulled ads from the show.

Amazon and McDonald’s and other advertisers did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Meanwhile, Atlanta-based Home Depot, which was cited by Florida Family Association as a company that stopped advertising, said Monday it never intended to run any ads during the show. But spokesman Stephen Holmes said one commercial ran “inadvertently and without our knowledge.”

The controversy highlights the fine line companies must walk when they select shows to advertise on.

Branding expert Laura Ries said Lowe’s made two mistakes. The first was advertising during a show that could be construed as controversial. The second was pulling advertising too quickly.

“For a big national brand like Lowe’s, they’ve always got to be incredibly careful when advertising during any show that could be deemed controversial,” she said. “Will it seriously damage the brand in the long term? Probably not. But it is a serious punch in the stomach.”

Overall, analysts said the furor is unlikely to damage Lowe’s brand in the long term.

“For a company that generates $50 billion in annual revenue, I don’t view this as something that will have a meaningful impact,” said Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom. “I’m hopeful this blows over and I’m certain management is as well.”

Still, some worry Lowe’s ad flap could do damage to Muslims living in the Metro Detroit area.

Florida pastor Terry Jones held an anti-Islam rally earlier this year outside Dearborn City Hall after being barred from protesting outside a Muslim mosque in the city. A burning of the Quran in March at Jones’ church in Florida led to a series of violent protests in Afghanistan that killed more than a dozen people.

“Metro Detroit and Dearborn have been the focal point of a number of anti-Muslim movements,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter. “There are organized forces in our society that want to marginalize American Muslims to the point where they don’t want to see any portrayals of Muslims that regular Americans can connect to.”

—

Corey Williams in Detroit, Rachel Zoll in New York and Mitch Stacy in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report.

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Premier Mario Monti convened a Cabinet meeting in Rome on Sunday to discuss emergency austerity and growth measures aimed at saving the euro currency from collapse.

Monti is under extreme pressure to come up with speedy and credible measures that will persuade markets to stop betting against the common currency.

The Cabinet was originally scheduled to meet Monday, but was moved up following Monti’s weekend of meetings with political parties, unions, business groups and consumer lobbies.

The premier hasn’t disclosed details of his rescue plan, but has said it includes both austerity cuts and measures to boost growth in Italy’s anemic economy. He has promised it would be socially equitable, and that it would go after those who hadn’t paid their share of taxes before.

With the meeting still under way, Monti’s office issued a statement saying the package was still under discussion.

The various parties briefed have said the package likely includes reinstating an unpopular home property tax abolished by Berlusconi, raising the sales tax and the income tax at the highest brackets by a few percentage points, and requiring Italians to work more than the 40 years now needed to receive a pension.

The head of Italy’s industrial lobby said Sunday that the survival of the common euro currency depends on Italy’s coming up with very strong austerity and growth measures _ followed by a concerted effort at the European level so that Italian sacrifices are not in vain.

Confindustria President Emma Marcegaglia told reporters after meeting with Monti that the measures are “very heavy.”

The coming days “will decided if the euro will survive or not no fax payday loans. The first move to save the euro is in Italian hands, with a very strong measures,” Marcegaglia said. The measures will be “fundamental to saving Italy and to saving the euro.”

Italian borrowing costs have spiked, which could spell disaster if Italy is unable to keep up on payments to service its enormous debt of euro1.9 trillion ($2.57 trillion), or 120 percent of its GDP.

Unlike Greece, Portugal and Ireland, which got bailouts after their borrowing rates skyrocketed, the eurozone’s third-largest economy is considered to be too big to bail out. An Italian default would be disastrous for the 17-member eurozone and reverberate throughout the global economy.

Union head Raffaele Bonnani, however, urged Monti to reconsider raising the pension age across the board, saying that workers in hard labor should be allowed to retire without added requirements, and that women who join the work force after raising children might have to work well into old age if the 40-year seniority requirement were raised.

But he said he was against calling a general strike at this sensitive moment, and would instead pursue a policy of negotiation with the government.

Marcegaglia said the measures were concentrated on raising taxes _ and to balance that she called for an immediate look at ways to cut political and bureaucratic spending. “This kind of fiscal pressure is not sustainable,” she said.

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A new report says a record number of shoppers made purchases online on the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, pushing sales up 33 percent.

The report from IBM Benchmark says the average order rose 2.6 percent to $193.24 on the day known as “Cyber Monday,” when retailers amp up online promotions. The data says about 80 percent of retailers offered online deals.

It says traffic peaked at 2:05 p.m. Eastern.

About 6.6 percent used a mobile device to shop, up from 2.3 percent in 2010. The Cyber Monday numbers point to Americans’ growing comfort with using their personal computers, tablets and smartphones to shop.

A clearer picture of how holiday sales are shaping up will come on Thursday, when major retailers report November sales.

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Kirin Holdings Co. says that a Brazilian court has revoked an injunction blocking the company’s $2.5 billion takeover of Brazilian beer producer Schincariol.

The ruling in Sao Paulo paves the way for the Japanese beer maker to assume control of Schincariol and gain a valuable foothold in the rapidly growing Brazilian market.

In August, Kirin announced a $2.5 billion deal to buy the 50.45 percent stake owned by brothers Alexandre and Adriano Schincariol. Minority shareholders _ their cousins _ opposed the transaction and successfully requested an injunction.

Kirin, Japan’s No. 2 brewer, appealed the decision.

Schincariol is Brazil’s second-largest beer producer, known for brands such as Nova Schin, Devassa and Bem Loura.

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The St. Louis region is not only getting its second Nordstrom department store this week — it will also soon have a second Nordstrom Rack.

A 35,000 square foot Nordstrom Rack, the retailer’s smaller off-price store, is scheduled to open in fall 2012 in Manchester. The store will be located on Manchester Road next to a Weekends Only Furniture Outlet. It is just east of the Manchester Highlands where there is a Costco, Walmart, Best Buy and more.

It will be about three miles from West County Center, where Nordstrom opened its first full-line department store in the region back in 2002.

On Friday, Nordstrom will open its second full-line department store at the St. Louis Galleria, just down the street from the Nordstrom Rack it opened last year.

“We find that our Racks do well when they’re located near full-line department stores,” said Brooke White, a Nordstrom spokeswoman. “That’s something that’s worked well for us.”

So I guess this must mean that the first Rack here has done well?

“Yes, we’re happy with our business at our store in Brentwood,” White said. “That’s really what helps us decide that we should move ahead.”

Nordstrom announced the new location in St. Louis today after the Post-Dispatch inquired about it on Monday.

Construction of the store is to begin immediately, according to Pace Properties, which will develop and own the building.

Nordstrom has been on a expansion boom with its Rack stores in recent years, especially as customers have gravitated toward more discount offerings in this economy. It opened about 17 Rack stores last year and plans to open 18 this year. The Manchester store is one of six stores planned for next year, White said.

Nordstrom Rack carries merchandise that is 50 to 60 percent off Nordstrom department store prices. About 20 percent of it comes from full-line Nordstrom stores. The rest is specially-purchased from the same brands, but will often be the previous year’s designs and will often have fewer bells and whistles.

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Ameren Missouri Vice President Mark C. Birk went to considerable lengths in a Post-Dispatch guest column last week to explain why the utility’s leaking coal ash pond at the Labadie power plant doesn’t pose a risk to groundwater — an argument that members of the Labadie Environmental Organization still don’t accept.

So it was surprising to see on Ameren’s website Wednesday afternoon a statement that the utility planned to place monitoring wells around all of its Missouri coal ash ponds.

Specifically, Ameren’s website said:

We have also volunteered to implement the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group’s (USWAG) Action Plan. USWAG is a consortium of more than 80 utility operating companies that generate more than 70% of the electricity used in the United States. Compliance with the USWAG Action Plan will result in the placement of monitoring wells around our Missouri ash ponds and other surface impoundments.

The mention of a groundwater monitoring plan (you can see a cached version of the web page on the left) prompted several questions, such as: When would monitoring wells be installed? When did Ameren commit to the USWAG plan? How often would sampling be done? What pollutants would be tested for?

On Thursday, after a Post-Dispatch inquiry, the company deleted the paragraph. Utility spokeswoman Rita Holmes-Bobo explained that the web page was out of date payday loan companies. Ameren has no plans to monitor groundwater at existing Labadie ash ponds.

Holmes-Bobo said that Ameren put the monitoring plan on hold when the Environmental Protection Agency began developing rules for coal ash disposal.

Mike Menne, an Ameren vice president, told the Post-Dispatch last month that the utility was part of an industry group, presumably USWAG, that was working with the EPA to voluntarily implement groundwater monitoring before the 2008 Kingston, Tenn., ash spill.

It was that disaster that renewed the debate over coal waste and prompted the EPA to propose the first national rules for coal ash disposal. Two coal ash disposal rules were issued in May 2010, but implementation of a final rule has been delayed.

Meanwhile, the utility does plan to fix the leaks, or “seeps,” as it calls them.

And discussion over a proposed coal waste landfill at Labadie continues. A draft of proposed land use regulations to accommodate utility waste landfills was supposed to be complete by July 19. But the Franklin County counselor went on medical leave for a month before the draft was complete. There’s no word yet on when the draft will be complete.

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Congress has given the U.S. patent system its first major overhaul since the age of the transistor radio by passing legislation designed to spur innovation and provide a sorely needed boost to the job market.

Senate passage Thursday of the America Invents Act, which sends it to President Barack Obama for his signature, is the first significant change in patent law since 1952. It took years to accomplish, with the final vote coming a little more than an hour before Obama appeared before a joint session of Congress to pitch his plan for promoting jobs growth.

“Today you passed reform that will speed up the outdated patent process so that entrepreneurs can turn a new idea into a new business as quickly as possible,” Obama said in his speech. “That’s the kind of action we need.”

The vote was 89-9, a rare example recently of Democrats and Republicans, and the House and Senate, working together for a common cause. Despite the emphasis from both parties this year on finding work for the unemployed, political divisions have resulted in almost no concrete jobs legislation.

The bill, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., “is an opportunity to show the American people that Democrats and Republicans can come together to enact meaningful legislation for the American people.”

Leahy’s partner on the bill, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said it was the most important change to patent law since the Patent Act of 1836 and hailed it as “one of the most significant jobs creation bills enacted by Congress this year.”

The legislation is aimed at streamlining the patent process, reducing costly legal battles and giving the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office the money it needs to process patent applications in a timely fashion.

It wasn’t easy. Congress has debated a patent bill every year over the past six years and, before final passage, the Senate had to defeat three proposed amendments that would have forced the bill to return to the House, with increased prospects of another deadlock. The Senate was voting on a version already passed by the House.

The measure would switch the United States from the “first-to-invent” system to the “first-inventor-to-file” system for patent applications. That change would put the U.S. in line with other industrialized countries.

The proposal has met resistance from some small-scale and independent inventors who say it will put them at a disadvantage with big corporations. Their concerns were voiced by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who said, “This is not a patent reform bill. This is a big corporation patent giveaway that tramples on the rights of small inventors.”

Supporters say it will add certainty to a system now riddled by costly lawsuits. With rivals having to rely on their own secret documents to prove they were the first inventor, it becomes difficult to “gain a clear picture of whether a patent is valid without years of litigation” and millions of dollars of discovery and other legal costs, said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

The bill ensures that the patent office has the money to expedite the application process. It now takes an average of three years to get a patent approved. The agency has a backlog of 1.2 million pending patents. More than 700,000 have yet to be reviewed.

Since 1992, the agency has lost nearly $1 billion because what it receives from Congress is less than what it collects in fees.

The bill gives assurance the agency will have access to more money but maintains congressional controls. Senators defeated an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that would have given the agency more leeway to set fees and keep all the fees it collects.

The legislation also takes steps to reduce harassing litigation, and improve patent quality by enabling third parties to submit information that may be relevant to the granting of a patent.

It encourages U.S. manufacturing by allowing producers to continue to use a manufacturing process in this country even if another inventor later patents the idea.

While small-scale inventors are divided on the legislation, it has the backing of associations representing corporations such as Caterpillar Inc. and General Electric, as well as high-tech companies including Apple and Google, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American Universities.

IBM Senior Vice President Robert C. Weber, in a statement, praised “our elected officials for producing a bipartisan, common-sense bill that will significantly improve the U.S. patent system.”

IBM has been the top U.S. patent recipient for the past 18 years.

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