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Fiat Group SpA, which controls Chrysler LLC, has reported that full-year earnings more than doubled as Chrysler posted its first profit since 1997.

The company says it made euro1.3 billion ($1.71 billion) in net profit last year, compared with euro520 million a year earlier, as revenue rose 66 percent to euro59.5 billion.

The results exceeded the company’s guidance. Fiat’s trading profit _ or earnings before interest, taxes and one-time items _ was euro2.3 billion, exceeding the target of more than euro2.1 billion.

Fiat said Wednesday that the results reflected higher Chrysler sales, resilient Fiat Group Auto revenues and double-digit growth at the Ferrari luxury brand.

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The Crowne Plaza hotel near Lambert-St. Louis International Airport is facing foreclosure next month.

An analyst said Thursday the hotel is among about 17 hotels, all owned by Columbia Sussex Corp., pushed toward default by Wachovia. Foreclosure of the Crowne Plaza is scheduled for Feb. 14.

A hotel representative referred questions to Crescent Hotels and Resorts, of Fairfax, Va., the Crowne Plaza’s operator. Crescent’s corporate counsel and a spokesman for Columbia Sussex, based in Crestview Hills, Ky., did not return calls seeking comment.

Owner Gary Andreas of H&H Financial Group Inc., a hotel consultant, said the Crowne Plaza, just west of Lambert on Interstate 70 at Lindbergh Boulevard, has struggled recently in the all-important category of revenue per available room, or REVPAR.

“Suffice it to say the REVPAR had been declining for the last three years,” he said. “This year it had essentially bottomed out quick cash. It was at a level that it would be difficult for a full-service hotel to survive.”

Wachovia, now Wells Fargo, was the lender on the package of Columbia Sussex hotels put on a “default schedule” in 2010, Andreas said. That move indicated that the hotels’ debt exceeded the amount the lender was willing to refinance, he said.

“It’s almost like a preforeclosure,” Andreas added.

Efforts to reach a Wells Fargo representative were unsuccessful.

The 351-room Crowne Plaza, built in 1990, opened as a Radisson hotel. The eight-story hotel is notable for the sharp-angled design similar to others that Andreas said were completed in the early 1990s in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

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Sales (ETSLTOTL) of previously owned U.S. homes probably rose in December to the highest level in more than a year, a sign the housing market ended 2011 with momentum, economists said before a report today.

Purchases increased 5.2 percent last month to a 4.65 million annual rate, the most since May 2010, according to the median forecast of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Historically low mortgage rates and a pickup in employment may be giving Americans the confidence to purchase homes that have fallen in value. At the same time, another wave of foreclosures may inhibit a faster recovery in real estate as more distressed properties are put on the market.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi says his strategy for battling Europe

The leaders of Germany and Italy sought to present a united front Wednesday in the fight to resolve the eurozone debt crisis and revive the ailing European economy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the efforts of Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti to cut government spending and make his nation’s economy more competitive.

"We have followed with great respect how quickly the measures are being implemented," said Merkel. "The work of the Italian government is being honored."

Monti said Italians support a "very hard series of measures," adding that Europe "doesn’t have to fear any more that Italy is a possible source of contagion."

Italy has been a big worry for global investors in recent months. The nation’s economy has been stagnant for a decade and its borrowing costs have ballooned, raising concerns about the government’s solvency.

Monti acknowledged that high interest rates could have been justified when market participants were uncertain about Italy’s economic policies. "But not anymore," he said, adding, "especially after representatives of those same markets have said they appreciated the efforts [Italy] made."

That assertion will be put to the test this week when the Italian government will offer €8.5 billion in bills Thursday and up to €4.75 billion in bonds Friday.

On Wednesday, yields on 10-year Italian bonds eased, but still held above the key 7% threshold.

Europe’s debt crisis: An end in sight? Not so fast

The meeting in Berlin between Merkel and Monti was the latest in a series of talks this week among top European Union leaders as they piece together a solution to the long-running government debt and banking problems in the eurozone.

Merkel met with International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde late Tuesday and French President Nicolas Sarkozy Monday. Lagarde will meet with Sarkozy later Wednesday in Paris.

Merkel and Sarkozy will travel to Rome for more talks with Monti on Jan 20. Then, the top leaders of all 27 members of the EU will gather in Brussels on Jan. 30 for their first summit of the year.

On Wednesday, Merkel and Monti discussed the situation in Greece, where Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is under pressure to push through reforms needed to secure additional bailout funds.

Merkel said the first step in resolving the debt crisis is to "create the preconditions" for a second bailout for Greece fast payday loan.

EU leaders agreed in October to provide a second €130 billion rescue package for Greece and announced a deal with private sector investors to voluntarily write down the value of Greek government bonds by 50% as part of a debt exchange.

But negotiations with the private sector have stalled and there is still disagreement among some policymakers over whether requiring Greece to enact more austerity as a condition of a second bailout will help or hurt the nation’s fragile economy.

"The talks with banks are being pushed so that the question of Greece can be solved rationally, so that we can then focus on structural reforms in the euro zone as a whole," said Merkel.

Europe: Still a huge pain in the neck for investors

Still, European leaders are optimistic that a proposed fiscal compact, designed to ensure that governments do not spend beyond their means and rack up unsustainable debts, will be signed by the end of the month.

"There is work to be done but there is a good chance that we can expect significant progress or a political conclusion already on Jan. 30," said Merkel.

The terms of the pact include, among other things, a balanced budget requirement with an "automatic correction mechanism," and a provision to make national budget policies subject to EU authority "ex ante," or before the fact.

The political leaders of the 17 eurozone nations, which share the embattled single euro currency, agreed in principle to abide by the pact following a summit on Dec. 9. But the agreement is still subject to parliamentary approval in some member states.

Merkel also suggested that Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy, could commit more capital to the European Stability Mechanism, which is expected to come into effect this year.

But Merkel was careful to say that Germany would contribute more capital to the fund only if necessary and other eurozone governments do the same.

The ESM would enhance or replace the eurozone’s current bailout fund, known as the European Financial Stability Facility. European leaders have said they will decide in March on a proposal to put more capital into the €500 billion ESM.

– CNN’s Diana Magnay contributed reporting from Berlin. 

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A Saudi oil official said that whether Japan or other countries continue to buy Iranian oil was an “internal matter,” reflecting the unease in many nations after the latest U.S. sanctions on Tehran and Iran’s threats to choke off the Strait of Hormuz in response.

The comments by the Oil Ministry official were reported on Monday by the Saudi daily Al-Watan a day after Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba met with senior Saudi officials in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh.

The newspaper said that Japanese officials asked Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, to make up for the potential loss of Iranian oil for Japan. The Asian nation is now even more heavily dependent on oil and natural gas imports after last year’s tsunami forced the shutdown of nuclear reactors.

The latest U.S. sanctions target Iran’s central bank and are aimed at hindering Tehran’s ability to receive payment for its oil exports.

Al-Watan quoted the senior Saudi official as saying that “the issue of buying or not buying oil from Iran is an internal matter to be decided by these countries.” The official was not identified.

Still, Saudi officials have said that Gulf oil producers are ready to step in and offset any loss of Iranian oil in the market, though it remains unclear if the necessary pipelines that would reroute the oil away from the strait are all fully operational. One pipeline with a capacity of about 1.5 million barrels per day being built by the UAE has yet to be completed.

China, a major Iran oil importer, has resisted the sanctions effort. The Asian powerhouse’s deputy foreign minister, Cui Tiankai, said Monday that China’s trade relations with Iran have nothing to do with Tehran’s nuclear program and that sanctions alone cannot resolve the dispute.

The West maintains that Iran is enriching uranium with an eye on developing a weapon, an allegation Tehran denies. Iran says its program is for purely peaceful purposes.

The official Saudi Press Agency said Gemba’s meeting with Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi and other top officials “dealt with the current situation in the international oil market and the importance of its stability Online payday loans.”

Iran has repeatedly raised the specter of closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a sixth of the world’s oil flows, if the U.S. and its allies impose measures targeting its oil exports.

Many analysts and officials have played down the comments as bluster by the Islamic Republic, noting that such a move would hit Iran hard given that it receives over 80 percent of its government revenue from oil sales.

But on Sunday, an Iranian newspaper quoted a senior Revolutionary Guard commander as saying that the country’s leadership had decided to close off the strait if its oil exports were targeted. The remark marked an escalation of earlier warnings that Tehran could easily close the waterway if it so desired.

The threats have rattled global oil markets, with the U.S. benchmark crude futures contract for February delivery hovering at slightly under $102 per barrel in electronic trading in Asia while its North Sea counterpart, Brent, was trading at above $113 per barrel in London.

Japan has been supportive of the U.S. and its allies’ efforts to pressure Iran over its controversial nuclear program. But Asian buyers of Iranian crude, in particular Japan and South Korea, are worried about the impact of the sanctions both on international crude prices and their economies.

Gemba, who is on an eight-day Mideast tour that began Thursday, later traveled to Qatar where they discussed the effect of santions on the oil market. He is slated to travel to the United Arab Emirates for meetings there on Tuesday.

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The European Commission has criticized Belgium’s 2012 budget as too optimistic, indicating that the country has to adopt more austerity measures or risk sanctions.

The country’s finance minister quickly reacted to the Commission’s intervention, saying Friday that the government was determined to meet its fiscal targets this year.

Belgium has promised to cut its budget deficit to 2.8 percent of economic output this year, from around 3.6 percent in 2011. But the Commission, the European Union’s executive, believes the Belgian government won’t be able meet this target unless tax revenues or spending cuts are increased.

The Commission’s criticism of the budget is a particularly sensitive issue in Belgium, where political parties needed more than one and a half years to set up a government, which was finally sworn in in December.

Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo had to balance the demands of the country’s strong Dutch-speaking community, which has been demanding more financial autonomy, and the French-speaking region, which is weaker economically.

But Belgium has one of the highest debt loads in the eurozone and analysts fear that it risks being dragged into the currency union’s debt crisis. Under EU rules, Belgium has to bring its deficit below 3 percent of GDP and spell out how it plans to reduce it debt to below 60 percent of GDP over the long-term, from about 100 percent currently.

“It is normal that the Commission is asking us questions,” Belgian Finance Minister Steven Vanackere told reporters outside the government offices. “The budget was set up at the end of the year at high speed. It was not the normal way to do things.”

He stressed that the government would strive to get its deficit below the 3 percent limit this year. “Belgium has not plans to skirt its responsibilities,” Vanackere said. “We want to _ also for ourselves and not for Europe _ make sure that the deficit gets under the 3 percent payday loans.”

The EU’s Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn last fall threatened to hit Belgium _ along with Malta and Cyprus countries _ with sanctions under the bloc’s new, stricter budget rules. Two non-euro countries _ Hungary and Poland _ were also suspected of overspending, but they would not face financial penalties.

A spokesman for the Commission said Friday that Rehn’s office was seeking clarification from the governments of all five countries to assess whether their estimates for both revenue and expenditure estimates were “credible.” No decision on sanction had been taken yet, he said, but added that it could come very soon.

The EU’s executive has been taking a much more active role in policing member states’ budgets after lackluster enforcement of the bloc’s budget rules allowed countries like Greece or Italy run up high debts.

Under the new sanctions regime, a country that is not doing enough to reduce its deficit and debt will have to pay an interest-bearing deposit of 0.2 percent of GDP, which could eventually be turned into a fine. The new rules also make it harder for countries to block sanctions against their partners.

Julien Manceaux, an economist at ING in Brussels, said the intervention from the Commission did not come as a surprise, adding that the Belgian government is already set to re-examine this year’s budget in February.

“The Belgian deficit is among the lowest in the eurozone anyway so it is certainly not a reason to panic,” he said. “But it is for sure that markets will keep an eye on the decisions that will be taken again in 2012 to stabilize debt trajectory.”

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Raf Casert and Mark D. Carlson contributed to this article.

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European stock markets headed higher in early trading Monday, while South Korea’s benchmark Kospi closed flat following the New Year’s holiday weekend.

Britain’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.1 percent at 5,572.28. Germany’s DAX was 1.1 percent higher at 5,960.04. France’s CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent to 3,174.76.

South Korea’s Kospi index, which lost 11 percent of its value last year, closed nearly unchanged at 1,826.37. Most other Asian markets were closed for an extended New Year’s holiday.

South Korea’s tech sector move higher, with Samsung Electronics up 2.1 percent and LG Electronics gaining 2.3 percent. Steel giant POSCO slid 1.1 percent and Korea Electric Power shed 1.8 percent.

Taiwan’s TAIEX, which was also open for business Monday, fell 1.7 percent to 6,952.21. Foxconn Technology, the world’s biggest contract electronics manufacturer, which makes iPads and iPhones for Apple Inc., fell 0.9 percent. Personal computer maker Acer Inc. shed 2.3 percent.

Benchmarks in the Philippines and India rose while Indonesia fell.

The Asian-Pacific region’s major benchmarks, including Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and Australia’s S&P ASX 200, were closed. Markets in the U.S. are also closed in observance of New Year’s Day.

Last year was one that traders would prefer to forget: most Asian equity indexes closed out 2011 deeply in the red unsecured personal loans. The Nikkei in Tokyo ended the year at 8,429.45 _ its lowest closing since 1982.

China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, closed Monday, endured a 21 percent loss for the year as the impact of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar stimulus faded and the government tightened curbs on lending and investment to cool blistering economic growth.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index finished at 18,434.39 _ a precipitous slide of 19.7 percent from a year ago. Singapore’s Straits Times Index took a 17.5 percent dive when it closed at 2,646.35 on Friday.

Australia’s benchmark S&P ASX 200 ended the year at 4,140.4 _ 14.5 percent lower for 2011.

India’s benchmark Sensex index fell more than 22 percent in 2011, making it one of the worst performers globally. The rupee also lost about 14 percent this year and recently hit an all-time low, breaching 54 rupees to the dollar.

In hopes of reducing volatility and attracting foreign cash, India announced Sunday that it would allow individual foreign nationals to invest directly in its stock market starting Jan. 15. Currently, foreign investors are limited to indirect investments such as mutual funds.

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Five months after it opened its doors, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is poised to begin the year without a Senate-confirmed director.

Over these next few weeks, the question will be whether President Obama will sidestep Congress and make a so-called recess appointment to fill the job.

The president made clear earlier this month that he would consider "all our options," including a recess appointment of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to run the consumer bureau.

At stake are vast new powers the CFPB can’t wield without a director. For example, the bureau can’t regulate financial products from non-banks, including student loan providers, debt collectors, payday lenders and check cashers.

Without a chief, the bureau also can’t regulate mortgage originators and servicers, which played a big role in the financial crisis by providing subprime mortgages to families who couldn’t afford them.

The new pup watching your money

Earlier this month, the Senate failed to muster the 60 votes necessary to take up and consider Cordray’s nomination.

Senate Republicans have vowed since May to block confirmation of any director unless they get structural changes to the bureau, which was formed as part of the Wall Street reform law passed last year.

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called Cordray the "perfect example of an abomination in terms of Senate behavior."

"He is exactly the right person for the job to be the consumer watchdog," Carney said.

Since May, Republicans have used a little-known procedure to keep the Senate in session — even as it wasn’t really conducting any business — in order to stop the president from making recess appointments.

The Constitution says neither the House nor the Senate can adjourn for more than three days without the other chamber’s consent. And since May 12, neither chamber has taken a recess.

So far, Obama has not tried to challenge the blocking move electronic check payday advance. But, legal experts say, he has options. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could gavel down the Senate for less than three days and give the president an opening.

Another scenario: The president could make an appointment when Congress flips from its first session to its second session sometime on or before Jan. 3.

That has rarely been done. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt made 160 recess appointments on Dec. 7, when the first session of Congress ended at noon and the second session began soon after, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The Constitution also gives the president the power to adjourn Congress into recess if the chambers can’t agree when exactly to schedule a recess, said David Arkush, an attorney and director of Congress Watch for Public Citizen, an advocacy group.

"I think it’s time for the president to make a recess appointment, it’s time for CFPB to be up and running with its full powers," Arkush said.

Republicans say their objection to Cordray’s nomination has nothing to do with the nominee.

Instead, they want three big changes to how the bureau is overseen. They want to replace the director with a board; make the bureau ask Congress for money each year; and gain more power to overrule the bureau.

If Obama decides to make a recess appointment with Cordray, he’s bound to incur the Republican wrath.

Norman Ornstein, a public policy scholar at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, expects Obama to spend his winter vacation analyzing the political costs to sidestepping Congress on a number confirmations that Republicans have blocked.

"Frankly, if I were President Obama, I would do some recess appointments now, because what’s going on is unconscionable," said Ornstein. 

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