Alcoa may show third straight loss on aluminum prices

Alcoa Inc., the largest U.S. aluminum producer, may report its third consecutive quarterly loss today as lower demand from automakers and the construction industry keeps the metal at about half of last year’s prices.

Alcoa, the first company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to announce results for the three months through June, is expected to report a loss excluding some items of 38 cents a share, the average estimate of 17 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The New York-based company had profit of about 71 cents a share a year earlier, according to a July 8 Bloomberg report.