(Reuters) - Kraft Foods Inc said that splitting into two companies would lead it to cut about 1,600 jobs in North America this year and that its 2011 profit should be slightly higher than it had previously forecast. Kraft also said its 2011 net revenue would be up by about 10 percent, as it ended the year with strong momentum around the world despite a tough operating environment. It expects to report 2011 operating earnings per share of at least $2.28, including a penny per share hit from currency in the fourth quarter. Previously Kraft had forecast operating earnings per share of at least $2.27, excluding any potential currency impact in the fourth quarter.

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(Reuters) - Citigroup Inc's fourth-quarter profit fell 11 percent and missed Wall Street estimates as the European debt crisis battered capital markets, hurting trading revenue and discouraging clients from doing deals. Citi on Tuesday said the crisis and fears about its impact on other markets and the global economy led to a broad move by clients away from risk and a decline in market volumes around the world. Fixed income, equity markets and investment banking revenues all declined in the quarter.

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(Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co beat Wall Street estimates with a 20 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, boosted by improving credit quality and continued loan growth. The jump in profit at the fourth-largest U.S. bank contrasted with an 11 percent decline in profit at Citigroup Inc, which saw its capital markets business battered by the European debt crisis.

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(Reuters) - Bank regulators on Tuesday voted to release a proposal for how banks with more than $10 billion in assets should conduct stress tests annually to determine whether they can withstand a financial shock. The tests are required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, which has established stress tests as a key component of how regulators will gauge the health of the banking industry.

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(Reuters) - European shares and the euro recovered from early losses on Monday in the wake of a mass downgrade of euro zone sovereign ratings, but trading was choppy with U.S. markets closed and the outlook for Greek debt talks uncertain. Standard & Poor's stripped France and Austria of their triple-A ratings and cut Italy to the same level as Ireland on Friday, shortly after news emerged that Athens' talks on a bond swap with private creditors, seen as vital to avoid a default in March, had broken down.

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(Reuters) - Mass euro zone ratings downgrades are unlikely to shake up investors too much, but with Greek debt talks at an impasse, pressure has been loaded on the bloc to shore up its defenses and glimmers of optimism from last week have been firmly doused. With the United States and Japan already downgraded from "AAA," the likes of France and Austria are in good company and Standard & Poor's ratings cuts had been flagged in December. Nonetheless, the upbeat tone that surrounded last week's strong Spanish bond auction now seems a distant memory.

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(Reuters) - The cruise ship industry faces an uphill task to restore confidence among customers spooked by spectacular images of the stricken Costa Concordia flipped on its side and could suffer a major hit to sales in a key booking period. Carnival, the owner of the cruise ship that capsized off Italy's west coast, said it alone expected to take a hit of around $90 million from Friday's accident just as a result of the boat being out of use for the rest of the year.

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(Reuters) - Standard & Poor's credit rating downgrades of nine euro zone countries will fuel attempts by European Union lawmakers to slap stricter curbs on sovereign ratings. The bloc's financial services chief Michel Barnier proposed in November a third set of rules for rating agencies in as many years. But faced with opposition from some of his fellow commissioners, Barnier dropped one proposed element: publication blackouts on ratings downgrades.

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(Reuters) - Top executives at Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gne.DE) and NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) sent a letter to European Commissioners emphasizing the "European" nature of a combined company, in a bid to salvage their deal after antitrust regulators threatened to block it. The letter was sent by NYSE Euronext Chief Executive Duncan Niederauer and Deutsche Boerse chief Reto Francioni on January 13, and was addressed to European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and also copied to the remaining 27 commissioners, a copy of the letter seen by Reuters shows.

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(Reuters) - Stocks held losses on Friday despite data showing consumer sentiment rose to the highest level in eight months. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 96.04 points, or 0.77 percent, at 12,374.98. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was down 10.12 points, or 0.78 percent, at 1,285.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was down 18.05 points, or 0.66 percent, at 2,706.65.

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