Alcoa Wows Wall Street

The markets have been looking for some good news and they found it in Alcoa, an international aluminum company that is a major employer in the Goose Creek area.

According to Bloomberg, Alcoa's sales rose to $6.01 billion, beating the $5.77 billion average of 12 estimates. (Bloomberg also has a pretty cool photo from the Goose Creek plant.)

The earnings were “driven by higher-than-expected profitability from every operating segment,” Brian Yu, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in San Francisco who estimated a 6- cent loss, said in a note. “Good cost control likely played a major role.”

Interesting that Yu would bring up cost control, because with provider Santee Cooper. The local plant employees 650 and, according to the company, provides $110 million in state and local revenue and has a $900 million economic impact in the state.

After a five-day slump, the market rose yesterday on the good news from Alcoa, according to The Motley Fool's Dan Dzombak.

Alcoa is largely regarded as a bellwether for the economy, so a good performance from the company bodes well.