Alcoa results kick off earnings season

Corporate earnings season is upon us with Alcoa, the largest US aluminum producer, set to report second-quarter results tomorrow. The company has traditionally kicked off each new earnings season, though it is no longer a Dow Jones Industrial Average component.

Analysts are expecting $0.12 in earnings per share on revenues of $5.6 billion. In the second quarter of 2013, the company posted a profit of $0.07 per share and revenues of $5.85 billion. Since the last earnings report in April, the consensus EPS and revenue figure have remained relatively stable.

Alcoa last week agreed to additional disclosures about the risk posed by increasing global supplies of the metal. The company will in future warn investors about the risks proposed warehousing rules could pose to its business, saying they could affect its finances and the premiums it charges.

Wells Fargo will step into the earnings spotlight at the end of the week, being the first of the major banks to report second-quarter results. It is expected to report profit of $1.01 per share, up from $0.98 per share in the same period last year. The bank is also to forecast to report a 3 per cent decline in revenues to $20.81 billion in the quarter. Wells Fargo stock has surged 28 per cent in the past 12 months, outperforming other major banks and the broader market.

The rest of the big banks – Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan – are scheduled to report their results in mid-July, with analysts predicting declines on the top and bottom lines.