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Byline: -- Staff and Wire Services

GE's earnings for Q4 double

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- General Electric Co. said Friday that its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled as its NBC television network showed signs of a turnaround and its global sales of gas turbines, health care equipment, financial services and aircraft engines grew strongly.

GE also said it is restating financial results for 2001 through 2005 and the first three quarters of 2006 to adjust accounting for interest-rate swaps in part of its financial services commercial paper program.

The restatement, which reduced reported earnings by a net of $343 million, is based on a decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission that GE's commercial paper hedging program didn't meet certain technical requirements. The change will have a slightly positive effect on earnings over the next 10 years, GE said.

Motorola slashes 3,500 positions

CHICAGO -- Motorola Inc. said Friday that it is cutting 3,500 jobs and taking other steps to reduce costs after misjudgments on pricing and sales forecasts for its high-end phones contributed to its least profitable quarter since 2004.

The move came as the world's No. 2 cell-phone maker reported a 48 percent decline in fourth-quarter earnings, to $624 million, on a steep drop in profitability in the handset business.

Chief Executive Ed Zander announced the cuts at a specially called analysts' meeting in New York, saying Motorola can save about $400 million over two years by eliminating 5 percent of its work force.

U.S. oil demand below '04 level

WASHINGTON -- While oil companies reaped gargantuan profits in 2006 amid high prices, U.S. demand for petroleum dipped last year to below 2004 levels, a trade group said Friday.

Total U.S. petroleum deliveries, a measure of demand, fell by roughly 1 percent, to 20.6 million barrels per day, according to a report by the American Petroleum Institute. That's down from 20.8 million barrels a day in 2005 and below the 2004 level of 20.7 million barrels a day. The group said the figures are preliminary and may be adjusted.

The analysis was released one day after the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimated that oil demand in the world's industrialized countries declined by 0.6 percent in 2006. Global demand rose in 2006 due to the strength of consumption in China and the Middle East, but the world's appetite has grown at a slower pace for two straight years.

UPS: No decision on Airbus deal

PARIS -- Parcel delivery company UPS, the last remaining customer for the cargo version of the Airbus A380, said Friday it hadn't decided whether to cancel its order for the superjumbos.

French business daily Les Echos, citing unidentified sources, reported Friday that United Parcel Service Inc. would cancel its order for 10 A380s next week. Such a move has long been rumored, and would mark the latest defection from the long-delayed superjumbo.

Another UPS spokesman, Mark Giuffre, said the company was in discussions as recently as Thursday about the Airbus order.

He said the report in Les Echos was ``making some supposition without the appropriate support for that'' and that no announcement is expected next week.