IN BRIEF (Page 16)

Commerzbank in the red

Commerzbank AG, Germany's second-largest bank, had a narrower-than-expected loss in the fourth quarter and said it made a "good start" to 2009.

The net loss was 809 million euros ($1.02 billion), compared with a profit of 201 million euros a year earlier, the Frankfurt- based company said today in a statement. That beat the median estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg of a loss of 851 million euros. The shares gained as much as 9.9 percent.