: Alcoa notches second straight quarterly loss after ‘challenging market conditions’
Alcoa Corp. AA late Wednesday reported a second consecutive quarterly loss, saying it has tried to lessen the impact throughout the year of “challenging market conditions” that included high costs for raw materials and energy and lower prices for its alumina and aluminum. The company, which did not provide a broad market outlook for the two products, said it had lost $374 million, or $2.12 a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $392 million, or $2.11 a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, Alcoa lost 70 cents a share. Alcoa reported a per-share 33-cent adjusted loss in the third quarter. Revenue fell to $2.7 billion, from $3.34 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expected an adjusted loss of 81 cents a share on sales of $2.65 billion. Alumina production fell 5% in 2022 and aluminum production fell 8% largely on operational curtailments and lower production in some refineries, Alcoa said. The stock fell more than 3% in extended trading and ended the regular trading down 2.6%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.