Alcoa and Chevron lead Dow Jones average down

NEW YORK (AP) ? The prospect of weaker earnings for Alcoa and Chevron pulled the Dow Jones industrial average down early Wednesday.

Alcoa, the aluminum company, beat Wall Street earnings estimates on Tuesday night but cut its demand expectation for the year, mostly because of a slowdown in China. Its stock fell 37 cents Wednesday to $8.76.

Chevron, the country's second-largest oil company, warned late Tuesday that slumping oil prices and production would cause earnings to be "substantially lower." It blamed Hurricane Isaac for disrupting production at a Mississippi refinery.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court also refused to block a $19 billion judgment levied against Chevron by an Ecuadorian court for pollution in the Amazon. Chevron's stock sank $4.22 to $113.12.

The Dow sank 60 points to 13,413 shortly after 11:30 a.m. Alcoa was the biggest loser among the 30 stocks that make up the average. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell two points to 1,439.

Stocks in the energy and materials industries, whose fortunes hinge on economic growth, slumped the most. Consumer staples headed in the other direction with the help of Yum Brands.

The parent of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and other fast-food chains said results from China stores should remain strong, even as the Chinese economy slows. Yum Brands jumped 9 percent, making it the top stock in the S&P 500. It gained $5.86 to $71.57.

In other trading, the Nasdaq lost one point to 3,064. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury rose to 1.74 percent, up from 1.71 percent late Tuesday.

The Dow and S&P 500 are down more than 1 percent for the week. The Nasdaq has lost more than 2 percent.

Alcoa's earnings report marks the unofficial start to the quarterly earnings parade, and this earnings season is expected to be the weakest in three years. Analysts project that companies in the S&P 500 will say third-quarter earnings shrank 1 percent compared with the same quarter of last year.

Among other companies making big moves Wednesday:

? FedEx gained 5 percent. The world's second-biggest package delivery company unveiled a restructuring plan Monday aimed at raising profits by $1.7 billion within three years. FedEx promised to shed jobs and underused aircraft. FedEx rose $4.70 to $90.25.

? Toyota Motor Corp. sank 1.5 percent after the carmaker recalled a total of 7.4 million vehicles worldwide for a for a faulty power-window switch, the latest in a series of recalls for Toyota. The recall announced Wednesday affects more than a dozen models produced from 2005 through 2010. Toyota's stock dropped $1.16 to $74.89.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/alcoa-chevron-lead-dow-jones-average-down-142140227--finance.html

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