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Oil is now below $100 per barrel following a disappointing U.S. jobs report and warnings of a weakening world economy.

It’s the first time oil has dropped below $100 since February 13. Benchmark crude hit $99.99 in morning trading.

Prices are falling as Western nations plan talks with Iran over its nuclear program, easing fears of a protracted standoff in the Middle East.

Economists are also increasingly focused on weakening oil demand. American oil consumption has dropped 5.3 percent in the first quarter. World oil supplies are also growing.

Oil has crossed the $100 mark 21 times during the past year. It rose as high as $113.93 per barrel last April and fell as low as $75.67 per barrel on Oct. 4.

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The Coca-Cola Co. is continuing to expand its reach worldwide and turning to a variety of smaller drink sizes to boost profits and keep rising commodity costs in check.

The world’s biggest soda maker on Tuesday reported better-than-expected profit for its first quarter as it sold more of its drinks around the globe.

Although the volume growth came from all regions, the world’s largest soda maker said increases were far greater in emerging markets. In the region encompassing Russia, India, the Middle East and Africa, for example, volume grew 9 percent, compared with a 2 percent increase in North America.

The Atlanta-based company, which has more than 500 brands including Fanta, Sprite and Minute Maid, also had strong growth beyond its sodas as consumers have become more concerned about consuming too many empty calories. Global volume for bottled water grew 15 percent in the quarter, while volume for energy drinks rose 25 percent. That surpassed the volume gains in the company’s namesake Coca-Cola soda, which increased 4 percent.

Even the slight bump in volume in North America was driven largely by the company’s Powerade energy drinks, Dasani bottled water and zero-calorie vitaminwater.

Despite the competition and market saturation at home, CEO Muhtar Kent said: “We believe North America is a growth market for our business.”

Total revenue was $11.14 billion for the three months ended March 30, up 6 percent from $10.52 billion a year ago. Analysts expected revenue of $10.82 billion for the latest quarter.

Coke has managed to offset rising commodity costs in recent years by offering drinks in smaller packages that bring bigger profits. Just four years ago, for example, the company offered only one size for on-the-go occasions in the U.S. _ a 20-ounce bottle.

Since then, Coke has rolled out drinks in 14-ounce, 12-ounce and 12.5-ounce bottles, as well as a 7.5-ounce “mini-can.”

“Moms buy the mini-cans. They love if for their kids,” Kent said.

In addition to improving margins, Kent said those smaller sizes are desired by consumers concerned about reducing their sugar intake.

Although Coco-Cola does not break out price increases, the company said such pricing models helped drive up revenue by 3 percent.

For the quarter, Coke said it earned $2.05 billion, or 89 cents per share, which was a penny per share more than what analysts polled by FactSet expected. In the year-ago period, it had net income of $1.9 billion, or 82 cents per share.

The company also said that the cost-cutting program it began in the quarter is on track. When completed, the measures are expected to save up to $650 million annually by 2015.

Coke is looking to trim costs wherever possible as another way to offset rising prices for ingredients, which continue to eat into profits for food and drink makers industry-wide. Coke said its cost of goods rose 10 percent in the quarter.

Kent also noted that Coke’s global marketing campaign for the summer Olympics in London is set to strengthen its brands by “tapping into emotional passion points like sports and music.”

Shares of Coca-Cola closed up $1.51, or 2 percent, at $73.95.

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Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said his nation

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Bank of America is back to basics _ slimmed down, stripped of its swagger and no longer the biggest bank in the country. And investors, after pummeling the company for two years, finally like what they see.

The stock soared 4 percent Thursday after Bank of America reported that it made $2 billion from October through December, reversing a $1.2 billion loss from a year earlier. The stock is up 27 percent this year.

Almost none of the profit came from improvements in Bank of America’s basic businesses. In fact, it lost money in the fourth quarter in real estate and investment banking.

But the bank raised $2.9 billion by selling its stake in China Construction Bank and $2.4 billion more by selling debt and issuing common stock to replace its higher-cost preferred stock, which paid out annual dividends as high as 8 percent.

“We enter 2012 stronger and more efficient after two years of simplifying and streamlining our company,” CEO Brian Moynihan said.

The cash has strengthened Bank of America’s balance sheet, a key factor as it undergoes a Federal Reserve “stress test” and tries to meet international regulatory standards that demand banks hold more cash against risky loans.

“It would be a big step if Bank of America can prove to the Street it doesn’t need to raise additional capital,” said Shannon Stemm, a banking analyst Edward Jones, a financial advice company Edward Jones.

After the stock dropped 63 percent drop in 2010 and 2011, Bank of America is eager to start over. But it won’t be easy.

Paying $4 billion for Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest subprime mortgage lender, in 2008 seemed like a bargain but has cost Bank of America tens of billions in mortgage losses, fines and litigation.

“The biggest problem with Bank of America is that you never know what litigation expense lurks around the corner,” Stemm said.

The bank has also been forced to buy billions of dollars’ worth of mortgages from the government-sponsored mortgage financing companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In 2011, the bank lost about $14 billion just on legal settlements tied to mortgages issued in years past. On Thursday, the bank said it put aside an additional $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter for future litigation, most of it tied to mortgages.

In addition to the legal costs, the Federal Reserve last year refused to let Bank of America increase its stock dividend, citing uncertainty about the depth of its mortgage problems Faxless payday loans.

It was the only denial issued to any of the four largest U.S. banks by the Fed, which is closely monitoring how the largest banks use their cash since the bailouts of 2008.

This year, Bank of America hasn’t asked the Fed to raise its dividend.

As the U.S. economy slowly comes back, investors are betting Bank of America is poised to capture some of that growth. But that won’t be easy, either.

Loans to people and businesses aren’t as profitable as they were before the financial crisis. Not only are interest rates at historic lows, but regulators have limited the fees banks can collect for overdrafts and late credit card payments. The government has also reduced the fees banks can ollect from stores on debit-card transactions.

Bank of America knows something about debit card fees. Last fall, it caused a public uproar when it announced it would charge customers $5 a month to use debit cards. The bank quickly backed off.

Bank of America serves about half of American households, and its results showed that housing continues remains a concern in the economy. The bank’s real estate business lost $1.5 billion after a 74 percent decline in new home loans. The bank lost some market share and closed a division that helped third-party home lenders.

But Americans seemed to be getting their financial houses in order by paying off more debt on time.

Bank of America, one of the largest credit card issuers, said customers who paid bills a month late declined for the 11th consecutive quarter. New credit card accounts also grew 53 percent, and the division posted a profit of $1 billion.

Bank of America’s investment banking business reported a loss of $433 million due to lower investment banking fees and lower sales and trading driven by the rocky stock and bond markets in the last three months of the year.

The bank’s quarterly earnings came to 15 cents per share, which was less than the 22 cents expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet, a provider of financial data. The earnings were in line with other estimates.

The bank reported fourth quarter revenue rose 11 percent to $25.1 billion from last year. For the year, the bank made $1.4 billion. It lost $2.2 billion in 2010.

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The job market is healthier than at any time since the end of the Great Recession.

The number of people filing for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest since May 2008, a sign that the waves of corporate layoffs that have defined the past few years are all but over.

“This is unexpectedly great news,” said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency Economics.

It will take an additional step _ robust hiring, not just the end of layoffs _ to bring the 8.6 percent unemployment rate down significantly. Experts say that won’t happen until businesses are more confident about customer demand. And the European debt crisis could still cause damage here.

But the report on unemployment claims Thursday was the latest to suggest that the economy, two and a half slow years after the official end of the recession, may finally be picking up momentum.

The nation added 100,000 or more jobs every month from July through November, the first such streak since 2006. And the economy, which was barely growing when the year started, has picked up speed each quarter.

More small businesses plan to hire than at any time in three years, a trade group said this week. And another private-sector survey found more companies are planning to add workers than at any time since 2008.

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits came in at 366,000, down from 385,000 the week before. Applications are nearing their pre-recession level of about 325,000.

The last time claims were so low, the nation was six months into the recession but didn’t know it yet. The unemployment rate was 5.4 percent _ a level almost hard to imagine these days. Unemployment has been above 8 percent for almost three years.

That spring of 2008, Bear Stearns, an investment house that predated the Depression, had been hobbled by its investment in subprime mortgages and was sold near collapse to JPMorgan Chase for a paltry $10 a share.

The worst was yet to come. Lehman Brothers collapsed four months later, credit froze, investors panicked and the stock market plunged. Businesses began slashing millions of jobs. Unemployment claims peaked at 659,000 in March 2009.

Unemployment claims are a measure of the pace of layoffs, and they have declined steadily for three months. Another government report this week showed that layoffs are lower than they were in most months before the recession.

But that’s just part of the picture. Business aren’t hiring with gusto. Unemployment fell 0.4 percentage points last month, but about half the decline was because people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed payday loan lenders.

“One of the features of this recovery is that hiring is exceptionally weak,” said Jeremy Lawson, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas.

And that doesn’t necessarily show up in unemployment claims. Many employers cut staffs to the bone during the recession. If they worry that business will grow weakly next year, they may hold off on layoffs _ but not hire, either.

“The hiring numbers will continue to look good but not great,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight.

Besides waiting for demand to come back, companies have other things to worry about. A recession in Europe would hurt U.S. exports, and a collapse in European banks because of the debt crisis there would probably cause a worldwide panic.

Another concern: The economy has been here before.

In February, unemployment claims fell to 375,000. Companies added about 200,000 jobs a month for three months. But then oil prices spiked and Europe’s debt problem got worse. Employers added just 53,000 jobs in May.

The decline in unemployment claims comes as Congress wrangles over whether to extend long-term unemployment benefits, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

Lawmakers differ over how long benefits should last. The House passed a Republican bill Tuesday that would renew emergency aid but reduce the maximum duration to 79 weeks from 99.

Democrats want to keep the full 99 weeks. The measure is part of broader legislation in the Democratic-led Senate that would also extend a cut in the Social Security tax and put $1,000 to $2,000 in most Americans’ pockets next year.

In other economic news Thursday:

_ The prices companies pay for factory and farm goods rose 0.3 percent last month. The figure was pushed up by higher food and pharmaceutical prices. But energy prices barely rose, keeping inflation in check. In the year ending in November, wholesale prices increased 5.7 percent, the Labor Department said. It’s the smallest increase since March.

_ A mixed picture emerged for manufacturing. Factory output fell in November for the first time in seven months, according to the Federal Reserve. Manufacturers made fewer cars, electronics and appliances. But some economists noted that auto sales rose in November, suggesting that production will rebound. And the Federal Reserve Banks of Philadelphia and New York said manufacturing expanded in their regions. Manufacturing has been a key source of economic growth this year.

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In his annual report tabled last week, Auditor General Jim McCarter accused the Ontario government of mismanaging the prices of auto insurance, electricity and liquor.

If his findings had been available for scrutiny before the Oct. 6 election, Ontario voters might have given even fewer seats to the Liberal party, which ended up with a one-seat minority.

I wish the Opposition parties were as comprehensive in their criticism as McCarter was. They had an opportunity to attack the government on pocketbook issues and came up short.

Here are some numbers that tell the story from a mammoth 462-page report, available online at www.auditor.on.ca.

Auto insurance: The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) approves rate filings by insurers and protects consumers from being charged an incorrect rate.

In a five-year period, FSCO reviewed 22 complaints about incorrect rates — and only five of them were initiated by the public. (The rest were self-reported by insurers.)

“Such errors can have a significant impact on consumers — we noted examples of overbilling that totalled between $1 million to $11 million,” the auditor’s report says.

“However, FSCO did not have any procedures for periodically checking that insurers were charging the approved rates.”

The agency said it planned to verify that insurers were charging only authorized rates. But why didn’t it do so earlier? It’s been approving insurance rates for several decades.

Electricity: The Ontario Energy Board has a responsibility to educate consumers on how to understand their complex electricity bills.

They need to understand the risks and potential benefits of signing retail fixed-price contracts. They need to know about the time-of-use system and how they can save by adjusting power usage.

But in a 2010 focus group, many people said they couldn’t figure out the electricity charges on their bills and weren’t aware of the board’s role in protecting them.

Meanwhile, the board received 17,000 complaints in five years. Most were about electricity retailers misrepresenting themselves, switching supply without a contract, even forging signatures on contracts.

Since it licenses retailers, the board is expected to play a proactive role in protecting consumers from unfair business practices.

“Despite the high number of public complaints, we noted little enforcement action against retailers with repeated offences. Since July 2003, the board has issued only four enforcement orders in 2009 and just one in 2010,” the report said.

Right on, Jim McCarter. Why has so little been done to discipline the brazen door-to-door sellers who break all the rules? This has gone on for a decade.

Liquor: The Liquor Control Board of Ontario can set retail prices for the products it sells. In the latest fiscal year, it had sales of $4.6 billion and net income of $1.56 billion (virtually all the profit goes to the province).

Most large retailers use their buying power to negotiate with suppliers to drive down costs. But the LCBO, one of the world’s largest purchasers of beverage alcohol, doesn’t do so.

It has no incentive to negotiate lower wholesale costs — since that would result in lower prices and, in turn, lower profits for the province.

“The LCBO should assess the feasibility of negotiating as low a price as possible with its suppliers,” McCarter said after releasing the report.

“With retail prices still kept at desired levels, this could result in higher profits for the province while still encouraging responsible consumption.”

Let’s be grateful that the auditor is doing his job and telling the truth. Ontario consumers pay too much for basic services and get too little from government agencies that are supposed to protect their interests.

Let’s hope his efforts continue to bear fruit in the years to come.

Ellen Roseman writes about personal finance and consumer issues. You can reach her at eroseman@thestar.ca.

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