Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- John Thain, the ousted chief of Merrill Lynch & Co., was named to lead CIT Group Inc., the commercial lender that emerged from bankruptcy in December, after almost a four-month search for a replacement.

Thain, 54, becomes chairman and chief executive officer immediately, New York-based CIT said yesterday in a statement. The century-old lender had been led by Jeffrey Peek, another former Merrill Lynch executive, from July 2004 until Jan. 15, when Peek stepped down and board member Peter Tobin was named interim CEO.

The job restores Thain to the top of a public company more than a year after he was pushed out by Kenneth D. Lewis, then CEO of Bank of America Corp., which agreed to buy Merrill Lynch during the 2008 financial crisis. Thain inherits a company that was crippled by Peek’s foray into subprime lending before the bankruptcy. CIT still operates under constraints tied to a federal bailout in 2008 and is shut out from the commercial paper market, its traditional source of funding.

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Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 22,000 jobs in January, in line with forecasts, according to data from a private report based on payrolls.

The drop was the smallest in two years and followed a revised 61,000 decrease the prior month, data from ADP Employer Services showed today. ADP figures overstated the Labor Department’s estimate of private payroll losses by 500,000 in the six months to December.

The fastest pace of growth in six years last quarter means the economy may be poised to add jobs as companies restock shelves to keep pace with rising demand. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News anticipate the government’s report Feb. 5 will show the U.S. created jobs in January for the second time in the past three months.

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LONDON — BP PLC today reported a net profit of $4.3 billion for the fourth quarter, up from a year-ago loss but falling short of analysts' estimates due to weak earnings on refining.

The company had made a loss of $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008 but a profit of $5.3 billion in the third quarter of 2009.

The fourth-quarter profit was also about 5 percent below analysts' consensus forecast, according to Evolution Securities, and BP shares dropped 4.5 percent to 568 pence in early trading on the London Stock Exchange.

Replacement cost profit, a key oil industry measure, was $3.45 billion compared to $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, but down from $4.98 billion in the third quarter.

BP declared a dividend of 14 cents per share, unchanged from the third quarter or from a year ago.

For more go to http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/6846692.html

Apple will also sell a version with pay-as-you-go data plans from AT&T in the U.S. Two tiers of data plan will be available without contracts: $14.99 per month for 250 megabytes of data, or $29.99 for unlimited data usage.

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