Posted Apr 29th 2009 1:00PM by Brent Archer
Filed under: Major movement, Good news, Alcoa Inc (AA), Options, Technical Analysis
Alcoa (NYSE:
AA -
option chain) shares are rising today after the company announced
it will reduce production at its Portland smelter in Australia by another 38,000 tons in order to cope with declining metals prices. The company already announced a 15,000-ton production cut at that smelter in December. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on AA.
AA opened this morning at $8.71. So far today the stock has hit a low of $8.60 and a high of $8.92. As of 11:05, AA is trading at $8.78, up 0.26 (3.0%). The chart for AA looks bearish and
S&P gives AA a negative 2 STARS (out of 5) sell ranking.
Continue reading Alcoa (AA) cuts output again
Posted Apr 11th 2009 11:40AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Brinker Intl (EAT), Alcoa Inc (AA), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Family Dollar Stores (FDO), Research in Motion (RIMM), Morgan Stanley (MS), Wells Fargo (WFC)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Family Dollar, Bed Bath & Beyond, Alcoa, Wells Fargo and more
Posted Apr 8th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Cisco Systems (CSCO), Sprint Nextel Corp (S), Alcoa Inc (AA), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Centex Corp (CTX), Juniper Networks (JNPR)

This was one of those days that if you just looked at a large group of stocks you would have no feel for the closing bell levels. The FOMC Minutes from the March 17 to March 18 meeting were given
some of the blame for the late day sell-off, although if you have to read one-month old data to get insight into a post-Fed action event explaining it... then something is wrong.
Hence the late-day recovery after that. The reality is that traders are still using any excuse to take a profit or to lighten up after a four-week run, and there are still buyers out there to meet them. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 7,837.11 +47.55 (0.61%)
S&P 500 825.16 +9.61 (1.18%)
Nasdaq 1,590.66 +29.05 (1.86%)
Top Analyst CallsTop Tech Analyst CallsContinue reading Closing Bell: Up, Down, Up... What the heck? (AA, BBBY, CSCO, JNPR, PHM, CTX, S)
Posted Apr 7th 2009 7:33AM by Jonathan Berr
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Market matters, Alcoa Inc (AA), Economic data

Alcoa Inc. (
AA) must have drawn the short straw to be the economic canary in the coal mine decades ago, but for many investors the aluminum maker's earnings are seen as a harbinger of things to come. Judging from Wall Street estimates, expectations are so low, they are almost laughable.
Analysts expect the Dow component to lose 56 cents per share on revenue of $4.08 billion compared with $303 million, or 37 cents, a year earlier on revenue of $7.38 billion, according to
estimates by Thomson Reuters. The Pittsburgh-based company reported its first loss in six years in January. Its shares are down about 30 percent this year, even with the recent surge in the stock market.
Continue reading Before the Bell: Will earnings season start with a whimper?
Posted Apr 6th 2009 9:50AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Home Depot (HD), AT and T (T), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), Alcoa Inc (AA), Best Buy (BBY), Hershey Co (HSY), Corning Inc (GLW), Research in Motion (RIMM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), General Mills (GIS), Yum Brands (YUM), NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE), Lowe's Cos (LOW), Verizon Communications (VZ), QUALCOMM Inc (QCOM), BHP Billiton Ltd ADR (BHP), Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says if you don't want to wait for a pullback, look abroad for the next leg or find values at home.
What do you do when everyone knows we have come up too far, too fast; no one knows who is actually buying; and we are going into earnings season?
What do you do when the animal spirits are taking up the market and yet other than a handful companies -- Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) (Cramer's Take), Xilinx (NASDAQ: XLNX) (Cramer's Take), Corning (NYSE: GLW) (Cramer's Take), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) (Cramer's Take) and Taiwan Semi (NYSE: TSM) (Cramer's Take) -- almost all companies that have spoken during the "off-season" earnings reports have been dismal?
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: So you missed the recent run -- now what?
Posted Mar 31st 2009 11:10AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Google (GOOG), Aetna Inc (AET), Alcoa Inc (AA), Analyst initiations, Freep't McMoRan Copper (FCX), Time Warner Cable (TWC)
Analyst upgrades:
- Merriman upgraded shares of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to Buy from Neutral after its channel checks indicated a modest increase in ad spend per client in March. The upgrade is based on early indications that search pricing and ad spend are stabilizing, search volume continuing to grow at a double-digit rate, and Merriman's belief that consensus estimates are now at reasonable levels.
- Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Alcoa (NYSE: AA) to Hold from Sell and raised its price target to $8 from $7.30 following the company's asset sales in March as it believes the financial overhang on the stock has been removed.
- Suntrust said Providence Service (NASDAQ: PRSC) has returned to profitability through demand stabilization for social services and cost controls. Shares were upgraded to Buy from Neutral.
- Telmex (NYSE: TMX) was upgraded to Neutral from Undeperform at Credit Suisse.
- Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Bernstein.
- Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) was lifted to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: GOOG, AA, FCX, SJM, TWC ...
Posted Mar 20th 2009 11:10AM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: Alcoa Inc (AA), Commodities
Within the past year, the stock price of Alcoa (NYSE: AA), a mega aluminum producer, has gone from a high of $44.78 to a low of $4.97. Although, during the past few weeks, things have perked up. In fact, yesterday Alcoa's stock price surged 17% to $6.40.
The reason? Alcoa was able to drum up interest in its recent financing. In all, the company raised $1.3 billion in stock and convertible notes. Keep in mind that Alcoa expected to raise $1.1 billion.
In the aftermarket, the trading of the new securities was robust -- which certainly delighted traders.
Continue reading Alcoa gets $1.3 billion in relief
Posted Mar 19th 2009 11:20AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Nokia Corp. (NOK), Alcoa Inc (AA), Expedia Inc (EXPE), Analyst initiations
Analyst upgrades:
- JP Morgan upgraded Alcoa (NYSE: AA) to Overweight from Neutral and added shares to its Focus List. The analyst said the equity offering and dividend cut provide enough "liquidity insurance" to make it through 2009 and now views risk/reward as attractive.
- Deutsche Bank upgraded Asbury Automotive (NYSE: ABG) to Buy from Hold as it finds the current valuation attractive and thinks the company's cost savings will drive upside in a recovery. The firm raised its target price to $7 from $5.50.
- Barclays upgraded Beckman Coulter (NYSE: BEC) to Overweight from Equal Weight. Following their healthcare conference and management meetings, the firm sees increased visibility into revenues.
- Waddell & Reed (NYSE: WDR) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
- Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
- Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) was lifted to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: AA, NOK, EXPE, MTB, CSC ...
Posted Mar 17th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Dell (DELL), Target Corp. (TGT), Alcoa Inc (AA), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), duPont(E.I.)deNemours (DD)

Today was an odd day as the market rose, but not for many of the reasons we might have thought about yesterday. The FOMC meeting hardly got any notice. Housing starts came in at a gain rather than at a drop, as was expected, and Producer Prices show almost no real signs of wholesale inflation. The other issue in today's rally is that it was not led by financial leaders. Technology enjoyed an up-day after getting a St. Patrick's Day memo and decided to show up in green. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 7,395.78 +178.81 (2.48%)
S&P 500 778.09 +24.20 (3.21%)
Nasdaq 1,462.11 +58.09 (4.14%)
Top Analyst Calls Continue reading Closing Bell: Techs decide to participate with St. Patrick's Day in rally (AA, AAPL, CSCO, DELL, DD, GS, TGT)
Posted Mar 17th 2009 9:15AM by Paul Foster
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Alcoa Inc (AA), Options
Alcoa (NYSE: AA) is recently trading at $5.40 in pre-open trading below its close of $6.12. AA announced a $1.1 billion common share and convertible debt offering. AA will reduce its quarterly dividend from 17 cents to 3 cents beginning in Q2 2009. Aluminum Futures are recently up 0.81% to $62.25 according to Bloomberg. AA April option implied volatility of 139 is above its 26-week average of 90, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.
General Electric (NYSE: GE) closed at $9.66. GE is hosting a Capital Investor meeting on March 19. GE March 10 straddle is priced at 96 cents, April 10 straddle is at $1.13, June 10 straddle is at $3.19. April option implied volatility of 90 is above its 26-week average of 68, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.
Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com
Posted Mar 17th 2009 7:35AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, International markets, Market matters, Nokia Corp. (NOK), Alcoa Inc (AA), American Express (AXP), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Economic data, Oil, Housing, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis
Stocks were poised for a moderately higher open this morning, as investors try to continue last week's rally. This morning, investors will focus on data about inflation and the housing market.
In general, though, the mood has soured somewhat after Alcoa (NYSE: AA) slashed its dividend and gave a gloomy outlook Monday, American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) said Monday its credit card defaults and deliquencies have risen over the past three months, and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced layoffs Tuesday in response to lower demand.
- At 8:30 a.m. Eastern, an hour before the opening bell, February data for housing starts and building permits are due out. According to Briefing.com, economists expect housing starts have fallen further in February, as have building permits.
- At the same time, Producer Price Index (PPI), a measure of inflation at the wholesale level, is forecast to have risen 0.4% in February. Core PPI, which excludes the volatile food and energy prices, is expected to be up 0.1%.
- The Federal Reserve also starts its two-day policy meeting today.
Continue reading Before the bell: Stocks to start higher as bulls attempt to restart rally
Posted Mar 9th 2009 9:50AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Wal-Mart (WMT), Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Market matters, McDonald's (MCD), AT and T (T), Caterpillar (CAT), Citigroup Inc. (C), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Alcoa Inc (AA), Altria Group (MO), Bank of America (BAC), Verizon Communications (VZ), Freep't McMoRan Copper (FCX), DJIA, Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer identifies the eight Dow components that will become too cheap not to buy. When I arrived at
my worst-case view that the Dow could reach 5320, my first reaction wasn't, "Look out below." It was more like, "Wait a second, how much I would like to buy these stocks at those levels?" Then I started thinking, "What do I do if it gets there and I am not in? Will it stay down there? Is it right to avoid a market that's cut by almost two-thirds in such a short period of time when some companies with really good earnings power might be selling at prices that we might never see again?"
But which ones?
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: What to buy in the Dow
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