The main headline is that aluminum giant Alcoa missed earnings at 15c versus the 22c expected. Shares are down 6% afterhours. The miss was blamed on lower aluminum prices, seasonal and weak demand from Europe.
This may weigh on stocks in the day ahead but for commodity currencies, profitability is less important than demand, which appears solid outside of Europe. The company maintained a 12% rise in demand this year. They also countered worries about China, raising their demand forecast by 2 percentage points to 17%. Rio-Tinto also continued to advertise strong demand from China.
