The current earnings season officially got under way last night as Alcoa (NYSE: AA), the first DOW stock to report, released its third quarter numbers, and the results were not too pretty.

Going into last night's earnings release, analysts had been expecting Alcoa to earn 53 cents per share in its third quarter, but the company reported much lower actual numbers -- 33 cents per share for the quarter, or $268 million. Weak demand, coupled with falling aluminum prices were the main culprits during the quarter.

During the same period last year, the company showed earnings of 63 cents per share, or $555 million.

Since hitting an all time high in July, aluminum prices have been pulling back sharply over the past few months, and have dipped around 32% from the highs set over the summer.

The company also announced that it would be trying to preserve its cash by suspending its stock buyback plan. Previously, the company had approved a 25% buyback of its outstanding stock, and had already purchased 12%, but will stop the buying for the time being.

Shares of the company are trading down a little over 3% this morning in the premarket.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

September proved to be yet another tough month for American auto maker Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) as the company saw its U.S. sales drop by a massive 34% during the month.

The company noted that we are in the middle of an "atmosphere of caution" as the troubled economic environment, and tightening credit conditions are still taking their tolls on the automotive industry.

We will hear more troubling news later today as more auto makers release their September numbers, and analysts are expecting to hear more of the same from the other major names in the industry. Fellow Detroit auto maker General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) is expected to announce sales dropping around 27%, while Japanese maker Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM) is expected to show a sales decline of around 17%.

Today's news from the major names should really come as no surprise, since we have been hearing much of the same through most of the year. Through August, nationwide sales of vehicles was down 11.2%.

As consumers continue to express their concerns over the overall economy it is going to continue to be tough for car dealers to get shoppers into their showrooms. Bigger incentives should help a little, but until consumers start to turn more positive on the overall economy, it is going to be tougher and tougher to sell them new cars.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

Look for shares of Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) to take a beating today after the office supplies retailer shocked Wall Street by predicting a huge drop in its second quarter same-stores sales.

Office Depot is going to announce its second quarter numbers later this month, and investors got a better picture of just what to expect this morning after the company stated that it is now forecasting a 10% drop in its same-store sales for the quarter, citing the slowing American economy as the main reason.

The company also warned it expects the remainder of the year to remain difficult. While the retailer believes that sales trends should improve slightly, it is remaining pessimistic. Margins for the quarter, it says, have declined by about 200 basis points than what it had previously anticipated. Even before today's revision, the company had estimated about 200 to 250 basis point decline in its margins. Looking at the rest of the year, the company thinks that its margins should increase sequentially in both Q3 and Q4.

If you are a Kroger (NYSE: KR) shopper and you think that you may have picked up some beef from the grocer recently, you may want to take a closer look at it, as reports of E. coli have prompted a recall from the grocery chain.

The recall involves beef products that were purchased between May 21 and June 8 in Michigan, and parts of the Ohio market. Kroger was forced to take this action following reports that there had been E. coli illnesses linked to beef sold in Kroger stores in the two locations.

So far, it looks as though there have been 19 reported cases in Michigan, and another 15 cases reported in the state of Ohio that can be linked back to the Kroger beef. The meat in question has been traced back to a Kroger store in Gahanna, a town in central Ohio. It does not look as though any stores in Michigan have definitely been linked to the tainted meat, but since there are reported cases of the disease in the area, you should definitely return any beef that you purchased from Kroger during the time frame in question.

It is safe to say that the past couple of years have been tough on shareholders of Circuit City (NYSE: CC), and today is no different as the company posted a large loss for its fiscal first quarter. Shares of the electronics retailer are down 7.5% after the company posted a loss of $1 a share for its most recent quarter.

The company stated that the main reason for its poor performance last quarter was weak sales performance in the company's established stores. This really should not come as a big surprise to us since we have been well aware of the company's faltering sales over the past couple of years. On the whole, same-store sales dropped by 11.3%, and continues to affirm the belief that Circuit City definitely has its work cut out for it if it ever wants to start regaining its lost market share.

The total loss on the quarter totaled $164.8 million, about triple the $54.6 million loss it recorded for the same period last year. I wish I could say that things are looking brighter down the road but that is just not the case, as the retailer is expected to post another large loss for its second quarter. Analysts had been expecting to see a loss of $143.4 million for the current quarter, but the company issued weaker guidance, stating that it expects to see a loss of somewhere between $170 and $185 million.

Ted Allrich is the founder of The Online Investor and author of the just released book: Comfort Zone Investing: Build Wealth And Sleep Well At Night. In this weekly column, he'll offer advice to investors who are just getting started.

Consumer Confidence came out. It's at a 16-year low. Oil is taking a breather as this is written, off its all-time high of $133 recently. No one thinks it's going back to $100 or lower. Not ever. There's too much demand from China, India and Brazil for that. Housing stats are enough to induce stomach problems with first quarter prices down 14.4% from the same quarter last year. They were accelerating downward as the quarter ended, setting up for a miserable number for this quarter.

On the political front, the Democrats are locked in a battle over their nominee, both of whom want out of the Iraqi war but also want to raise taxes on higher incomes. The Republican nominee wants to stay the course in Iraq but wants to keep taxes low. It's the usual splits about taxes, government vs. private enterprise. It doesn't matter who wins, change is coming. Most likely the candidate that can offer resolutions for the high cost of gas and food will get most of the votes. Neither problem is easily or quickly solved. And certainly not by a legislative fiat. But incentives can come from Washington.

Shares of AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) crashed today on Wall Street on a string a bad news out of its principal subsidiary, American Airlines, as current record-high oil prices continue to wreak havoc on the airline industry.

Oil prices have been continuing to soar, and earlier today crude traded through the $133 mark, and nearly busted $134, trading as high as $133.82.

What does this mean for airlines? You guessed it... major changes in order to combat the rising costs of keeping their planes in the air, and after announcing a few new changes today, AMR took the full brunt of Wall Street, as nervous traders pushed the already beaten-up stock down another 24.2%.

So what exactly got the market so spooked? Well, I am not really sure which of the following was the final nail in the coffin; you can almost just take your pick:

• The company announced that it would be slashing the number of flights that it offers
  
• The company announced that it would start charging for all checked luggage
  
• And, last but not least, the company is being forced to reduce its workforce

It wasn't that long ago that Wall Street was in love with Crocs, Inc (NASDAQ: CROX), the maker of the trendy slippers that took the world by storm last year. After going on a tear for most of 2007, the stock started to break down last November, and has been in a tail spin for the past 5 months.

The company is going to be reporting its first quarter numbers tomorrow after the market close, and all signs are pointing to yet another troublesome quarter for the company. Earnings.com is showing Wall Street estimates of 10 cents a share, but that number does not really hold too much water after the company announced a much weaker forecast last month in its preliminary release.

Last month, CROX shocked Wall Street when it said that it expected to see a 5 cent per share loss in the quarter, and revenues falling somewhere between $195 and $200 million. After that news came out, the already troubled stock took a serious nose dive, and gave up around 40% of its value.

Shares of consumer goods giant Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE) have been taking a beating today after the company failed to meet analyst estimates for its fiscal third quarter.

At first glance, it looked like a fantastic quarter for the company, as profit rose by a remarkable 82%, but things start to look less than rosy once we take a closer look. Analysts had been expecting to see the company show earnings during the quarter of 24 cents a share, and were disappointed to see the company come in below this, with only 22 cents a share.

This is the second quarter in a row in which the company posted weaker than expected earnings, and is quickly erasing the progress that the stock has been making since the beginning of March.

It's another day of cancellations for American Airlines -- AMR Corp (NYSE: AMR) -- as its current round of plane inspections is moving slower than had been anticipated.

Roughly 900 of the airlines flights have been canceled today, representing around 40% of its usual daily flight volume. The delays started on Tuesday when the American announced that it had to re-run inspections that it held last month after the FAA decided that the work done did not meet its standards.

On Tuesday the airline canceled 460 flights, and then another 1,094 yesterday, so it has been a tough few days for passengers trying to get to their destinations. All in all, over 100,000 passengers have been effected by the current situation at American.

American Airlines -- AMR Corp (NYSE: AMR) -- is once again canceling massive amounts of flights in order to inspect the bundling of wires in some of its airplanes. You may recall, that this is the same situation that led to around 400 cancellations last month, and this current inspection is estimated to affect even more flights, with up to 500 flights being canceled.

The current round of cancellations, which represents about 20% of total American flights, started late Tuesday afternoon, and was expected to last Tuesday night and into Wednesday, and possibly even beyond.

Passengers that were scheduled to fly the canceled American flights have been switched over to alternative American flights, or placed on other airlines that service the selected routes.

It has definitely been a tough week for airlines, and yesterday Skybus became the third airline to stop operating.

Once again, the main culprits are rising fuel costs and the slowing economy, making it almost impossible for small, low-cost airline companies to compete in the current market. Skybus decided that it would be shutting down all operations as of yesterday, and plans to file for bankruptcy over the course of the next week.

Skybus has not been around for too long. The company started up about a year ago and operated around 75 flights a day. The company had 350 employees working out of Columbus, Ohio, and 100 in Greensboro, N.C.

Last night, handset maker Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced that it would be slashing another 2,600 jobs as the company continues to battle lower sales. The current job cuts represent approximately 4% of its total job force as of the end of 2007 of 66,000 employees.

It wasn't that long ago that Motorola was a major force in the world of mobile phones, but over the past two years the company has definitely fallen from grace among consumers. Two years ago the company was the world's second largest handset maker, but that status is no more, and the company is currently sitting in the fourth spot overall.

Analysts have blamed the company's drop due to lack of innovation, and some have gone so far as to predict that the company's handset business is doomed if Motorola can not pick up the pace and start to pump out new and fresh ideas for consumers to gobble up.

With the recent surge in oil prices, it should come as no surprise that we are getting hit hard at the gas pumps, and according to AAA, prices moved to a new record high last night of $3.303 for a gallon of regular unleaded.

This is the second day in a row that gas prices have set new highs, after jumping more than a penny overnight. At these current levels, prices are now a massive 22% higher than they were this time last year.

Congress has been trying to get to the bottom of the situation, and earlier this week they heard testimony from executives of 5 of the world's largest oil companies regarding the current price explosion. Some analysts are predicting that Congress may have to step in to take some action to help combat the record-high prices by making the purchase of high-risk oil contracts tougher to do, which could lead to lower prices. Whether or not that takes place remains to be seen.

Two years after coming out of bankruptcy, ATA airlines has once again been forced to file for chapter 11. The airline canceled all flights, and has advised travelers to start to look for alternative travel arrangements.

The airline operated roughly 50 flights a day, and had more than 2,200 employees working. On its website, ATA has issued a formal statement and blamed the final straw for its collapse on the loss of a key military contract. In 2006, the company had won a $335 million dollar contract from the U.S. Air Force for international airlift services.

In its statement, ATA has advised passengers to contact their credit card company, or travel agent to discuss the options to get refunded for their unused tickets.