HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- General Electric Co. delivered some cheer Friday to investors worried about a slowing economy, saying its quarterly profit rose 4 percent and reaffirming its outlook for 2008.

The conglomerate's big-ticket business -- jet engines, railroad locomotives, and water treatment plants -- powered GE's profit, posting $3.4 billion, or 26 percent more than the fourth quarter of 2006. It also gave GE a global reach that should help blunt the impact of a possible U.S. recession.

"Every place we went, there's a need for power, there's a need for planes, and there's just no signs that this global infrastructure boom is slowing at all," chief executive Jeff Immelt told investors in a conference call.

Total net income rose to $6.7 billion, or 66 cents a share, in the fourth-quarter ended Dec. 31, from $6.44 billion, or 62 cents a year earlier. Earnings from continuing operations climbed to 68 cents a share in the latest period, from 58 cents in the prior-year period.

Revenue jumped 18 percent, to nearly $48.6 billion. The company said more than half of its revenue is from outside the U.S.

Eric Boyce, portfolio manager at Hester Capital Management in Austin, Texas, said GE's performance was

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Sprint Nextel Corp.'s stock plunged Friday after the wireless carrier said it will cut 4,000 jobs and close 125 retail locations in response to a steep drop in its customer base.

Sprint shares plummeted nearly 25 percent, prompting analysts to forecast even more cuts in the coming months as the nation's third-largest wireless carrier struggles to compete with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless.

The layoff of about 6.7 percent of Sprint's work force and closure of 8 percent of its stores is to be completed in the first half of the year. Sprint said in a news release that the cuts will trim labor costs by $700 million to $800 million a year.

Some analysts said the moves would not be enough to stem losses resulting from a fourth-quarter loss of 683,000 so-called postpaid subscribers -- more than twice the net loss Wall Street analysts predicted -- for a net decline of 109,000 subscribers.

Subscribers who pay monthly for annual plans, known as postpaid subscribers, are the most profitable for wireless companies.

Sprint finished last year with 53.8 million subscribers.

Wall Street had estimated the company lost 250,000 postpaid subscribers, according to Goldman Sachs

The year-end tax statements arriving from mutual-fund companies in the next few weeks could have fund investors facing the steepest capital-gains tax bills they've seen in years.

That's largely a reflection of years of good stock-market results, and it's now too late to trim the fund-related taxes you'll owe in April.

But with a new year under way, this is a good opportunity to think about being a more tax-efficient investor in the future.

Fund investors who hold shares in taxable accounts aren't just responsible for paying taxes on profits they earn when they sell fund shares. Uncle Sam also demands investors pay up on gains the funds make each year trading securities -- profits the funds are required to pay out annually to holders.

Usually, paying tax on those gains means you will owe less when you eventually sell your fund shares. But on the downside, funds' capital-gains distributions are taxable even if you don't get any cash and instead reinvest in additional fund shares.

Five years into the bull market that began in 2002, funds' capital-gains distributions in 2007 may end up exceeding the record $298 billion paid in 2000, the year the Internet bubble popped, according to Lipper

Have you read (or seen) The Secret? Yes, that Secret, the one that promises unlimited gains from the application of something called the "Law of Attraction." The book quotes assorted luminaries, including a "channeled" spirit being and a few people with mysterious degrees in "metaphysics" from heretofore unheralded institutions of higher learning.

The Secret is available in book and DVD versions. I recently watched the video at the behest of a friend, and my impression was that despite the very slick presentation, dubious "experts," and New-Agey-magical-thinking context, there's actually some useful perspective in there.

As you might have heard, the gist of The Secret is that much of what goes on in the universe is governed by that "Law of Attraction." This "law" states that, on an emotional level, like attracts like. In other words, if you really feel successful on a deep-down level, you will be successful, because the universe will respond to your successful feelings with success-enabling opportunities. (The corollary to this is that if you feel like a failure, you'll fail, says the "law," because the universe will give you what you seem to be wanting.)

Whether you credit the metaphysical explanation or not, there's some truth in the message. Believing in success is certainly a precondition for actually succeeding in any endeavor. But that's hardly the whole