Wall Street Waiting on Alcoa's Earnings

Today is all about Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA), volume is light on the NYSE and NASDAQ as everyone holds their breath for what they hope to be a positive earnings call from the company after the close today.

Earnings season starts today at 5 PM EST, Alcoa will report Q3 earnings and the market is waiting for a sign of either recovery or prolonged recession.  Traders have already pushed up Alcoa shares 8% this week and today shares are even trading around $13.90.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is projected to post a third-quarter loss of 10 cents a share, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. In the year-ago quarter, Alcoa earned 37 cents per share on revenue of $7.23 billion. For the past three quarters, the company has posted losses.

Aluminum prices appear to have bottomed, and excess inventories are being worked off. This may be reflected in Alcoa's stock price rally, which has pretty much continued in a straight line since the March 2009 market lows.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) was very active in stock options late yesterday ahead of today’s earnings report.  We’d look for a continuation of that today as traders take deleveraged bets after such a large run up in the stock.

Place your bets investors, if Alcoa shines on the call expect the stock to continue up, if not, shares could fall 10% easy after-hours.

Disclaimer: No positions in AA.