IN BRIEF

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Bad loans hurt Citi; Goldman Sachs soars

Citigroup provided a sobering reminder Thursday that the economy is still struggling, saying billions of dollars in failed loans hurt third-quarter results.

Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, said third-quarter earnings more than tripled as income from the company's trading operations offset a drop in its investment banking business.

Citigroup reported a $101 million profit before accounting for $288 million in preferred stock dividends and the debt exchange offer that gave the government a 34 percent stake in the bank. Including those items, the New York-based bank reported a loss of $3.24 billion, or 27 cents a share.

Wall Street analysts had expected an even bigger loss of 38 cents per share.

A year earlier, Citigroup had a loss of $2.9 billion, or 61 cents a share.

Revenue rose 25 percent to $20.39 billion.

Citigroup said loan losses during the quarter came to $8 billion, down $386 million from nearly $8.4 billion in the second quarter, but a sign that many consumers are still overwhelmed.

Goldman Sachs earned $3.03 billion, or $5.25 per share, easily beating analysts' expectations for a profit of $4.24 per share. The bank earned $810 million, or $1.81 per share, during its fiscal third quarter last year, which ended in August.

Revenue was $12.37 billion.

RENO

Expos to draw 100,000 more visitors to Reno

Tourism officials have landed three new conventions for veterans, hunters and volleyball players that will bring more than 100,000 visitors to Reno from 2012 to 2017.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars will come to Reno in July 2012, said Ellen Oppenheim, president of the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority.

The Wild Sheep Foundation has committed to three consecutive Februarys, from 2013 to 2015, and the Northern California Volleyball Association committed to six Aprils from 2012 to 2017.

Combined, they will bring nearly 115,000 visitors and more than 76,000 room nights to the area, Oppenheim said Thursday.

Ecotourism group lauds LV holdings for Harrah's

A European-based environmental tourism group awarded Harrah's Entertainment's eight Las Vegas properties green energy and sustainable environment accreditations, the gaming giant said Thursday.

Travelife Sustainability Systems issued its gold award for Harrah's green energy efforts at Caesars Palace, Paris Las Vegas, Flamingo, Bally's, Bill's, Harrah's and Rio in Las Vegas. The Imperial Palace received a silver award.

The Travelife organization was established by the Federation of Tour Operators and is partially funded by the European Union to identify companies that have excellent environmental and social practices in the travel and tourism industry.

Medcath Inc. opens hospital in Arizona

Medcath Inc. opened its $70 million hospital in Kingman, Ariz., on Thursday.

It is the second full-service general health care center in the northwest Arizona community.

The four-story, 200,000-square-foot Hualapai Mountain Medical Center welcomed its first patient about an hour after it opened at 9 a.m.

It opened with 70 private rooms for patients, with 36 more rooms to be built when needed.

Chief Executive Officer Duane Scholer said 170 employees are on the job, but that employment is projected to increase to about 300 over the next year.

Hualapai is the 10th hospital in the Medcath chain, with others operating in California, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana and South Dakota.

DENVER

Big draw in gas supply boosts energy prices

Evidence that refiners severely curtailed their production of gasoline over the past week sent energy prices jumping across the board.

The Energy Information Administration reported Thursday that gasoline in storage fell by more than 5 million barrels at a time when most energy experts expected supplies to grow yet again. Oil prices hit a high for the year, rising to almost $78 a barrel.

Consumers may see a bump upward in pump prices but only a slight one, experts believe, because gas supplies greater than what they usually are at this time of the year and demand is still low due to the recession.

Business-flier dearth hurts Southwest profits

Southwest Airlines Co. Southwest reported a small third-quarter loss and said there's no rebound in sight for business travel. The vanishing business traveler has hurt revenue at all airlines.

Dallas-based Southwest lost $16 million in the third quarter, or 2 cents per share. Not counting special items, it would have shown a $23 million profit, or 3 cents per share, a penny ahead of the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

During the same period last year Southwest lost $120 million.

Revenue fell 6.9 percent to about $2.7 billion from $2.9 billion.

SAN FRANCISCO

Google posts record profit in third quarter

Google Inc. shifted into a higher gear in the third quarter and began to leave the recession behind as the 11-year-old Internet search leader recorded its highest profit ever.

The Mountain View-based company said it earned $1.64 billion, or $5.13 per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30. That represented a 27 percent increase from $1.29 billion, or $4.06 per share, at the same time last year.

Excluding expenses for employee stock compensation, Google said it would have made $5.89 per share -- more than the average estimate of $5.42 per share among Thomson Reuters-polled analysts.

Revenue rose 7.2 percent, to $5.94 billion from $5.54 million.

All may not be lost ... for Sidekick data

There may be a happy ending after all for owners of Sidekick phones who thought they might have permanently lost contact numbers and other personal information they had put on the gadget.

Earlier this week, T-Mobile said information stored by many Sidekick owners was "almost certainly" gone for good following a failure of the computers that remotely stored the data.

But Microsoft Corp., whose Danger Inc. subsidiary makes the phones that are sold through T-Mobile USA, said Thursday it recovered "most, if not all" of the missing data and will restore it as soon as it validates the information. Microsoft also apologized for the glitch.