Citigroup Inc. became the latest bank to take a cautious view of credit problems, reporting a $7.77 billion fourth-quarter loss due to failed loans and the costs of repaying $20 billion in bailout money. Even with the loss, Citigroup said it would give big bonuses this month to its top employees. Yesterday's report met analysts' expectations, as Citigroup was forced to set aside $8.18 billion to cover loans consumers can't repay.

Gas prices in the Pittsburgh area declined last week after rising for the first few weeks of the year. The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline at local pumps was $2.767 yesterday, about 3 cents less than a week ago, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge report. A month ago, the price was $2.634, while a year ago, it was $1.865.

Pittsburgh ranked 12th on a list of the easiest U.S. cities for job seekers to find work. The job search site Juju.com ranked the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States according to how many job seekers there were in the region per advertised job. In the Pittsburgh area, there were 4.83 job seekers per available job. Topping the list was Washington, D.C., where there were 1.93 job seekers per job. At the bottom was Detroit, which had more than 20 job seekers for each listing.

Law firm K&L Gates has set up shop in Moscow and Tokyo, bringing its total number of offices to 35 worldwide. The Pittsburgh-based firm hired six lawyers to staff its new office in Moscow and three lawyers for its new Tokyo office. K&L, the city's largest law firm, had $1.03 billion in revenues last year and has about 1,800 lawyers worldwide, including about 235 in Pittsburgh.

An executive from Station Square ad agency Marc USA is heading back to the client side. Tony Montini, 57, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Marc, will become Rite Aid's senior vice president, category management, in mid-February. Mr. Montini, with Marc since 2004, previously worked at Rite Aid. Marc USA has been Rite Aid's agency of record since 1997.

Bayer AG's Swiss unit has denied allegations it fixed the price of its erectile dysfunction drug, Levitra. Bayer will appeal a ruling by the Swiss Competition Commission which included $5.6 million in fines for Bayer, Eli Lilly & Co. and Pfizer Inc. for allegedly fixing prices of their erectile dysfunction drugs in the form of public price recommendations.

Service workers at the Meadows Racetrack and Casino ratified an agreement between the company and their union, Unite Here. The food and beverage workers and the cleaning crews ratified a three-year contract that covers 435 workers. The Meadows is owned by Cannery Casino Resorts, of Las Vegas. ... Google yesterday postponed the launch of two mobile phones in China, adding to the potential commercial fallout of its dispute with Beijing over Internet censorship and e-mail hacking.

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