BUSINESS MEMO: BIG THREE EARNINGS FLAT

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- Big Three earnings were flat last year at just over $12.9 billion, partly because of a 22 percent overall decline in fourth-quarter profits blamed largely on General Motors Corp.'s big strike costs.

Even so, 1996 ended up as Detroit's third most profitable year. It would have ranked No. 1, if not for GM's $1.2 billion in after-tax losses from strikes in the United States and Canada and other one-time charges.

Ford Motor Co., the last of the U.S. automakers to report year-end results, said last week that its profits increased 82 percent in the October-December period and 7 percent for the year.