Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA) reported its quarterly earning, the first company to report this earnings season. The company reported a profit of $0.10 per share. Analysts had expected the company to report a loss of $0.03 per share. The company’s revenues came in at $6 billion while analysts had expected $5.77 billion. In the fourth quarter of last year Alcoa the company posted a loss of 18 cents per share while posting revenues of around $6 billion. In its fourth quarter report the company did give a positive outlook for the aluminum industry though the industry is facing a decline in global aluminum prices and demand. The more than expected result will give a boost to the company whose results previously looked dour.
Alcoa Inc. is a firm involved in the production of aluminum and aluminum byproducts. The company operates in over thirty countries world wide. Alcoa’s products are used in a number of industries that require processed aluminum for production. Such industries include, aerospace, automotive, technology, heavy machinery and construction. The company is traditionally the first to report and so is seen as an early benchmark of performance in company earnings each quarter. Today’s earnings may be seen to be indicative of the coming earnings season, a situation that would be in line with analysts expectations.
This earnings season is not expected to be a hugely successful one for American companies. The economy is not looking to recover quite as quickly as analysts had previously expected and indicators in the jobs market were not as favorable at the end of March as many would have hoped. The consensus is still hopeful however, the current difficulties are seen as a bump along the road to recovery rater than a true obstacle. According to analysts this is simply a temporary situation dependent on many external factors. The slowdown in the US does put pressure on those external factors however. The vicious economic circle encompassing the world economy never stops spinning.
A slowdown in the United States economy could spell difficulty for European countries, such as Spain, still struggling with their debt burdens and China whose medium term economic fate hangs in the balance right now and won’t be helped by lower than expected demand from the rest of the world. The earnings season which kicked off with Alcoa will not be one inspiring to many. Earnings will be steady but few companies will beat expectations. the S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) was down in anticipation of the results.
