If I grossly filter my own listening and reading of the news I might get the impression that evil corporations, eager to screw the consumer, were happy to see the disasters that were the Gulf Coast hurricanes. After all, we did have congressional hearings to find out--well, nothing really. Anyway, as 4th quarter profit reports start to come out, it looks like not all big businesses profited from other's misery.
From the AP:
Shares of Alcoa Inc. fell Tuesday after the aluminum producer said energy costs and impaired refinery activity from Gulf Coast hurricanes trimmed its quarterly income by 16 percent, causing it to miss analyst forecasts despite robust product prices.
[...]
Alcoa is traditionally the first of the Dow Jones average's 30 large-cap companies to report each quarter.
The strong price of aluminum drove revenue to $6.67 billion from $5.98 billion reported during last year's fourth quarter. Sales were slightly below Wall Street projections for $6.69 billion during the quarter.
"Entering 2005, we anticipated significant pressures from rising input, energy costs and other cost inflation, but actual increases were even higher, nearly $900 million for the year," said Alain Belda, Alcoa's chairman and chief executive.
Alcoa said its bottom line was slammed by a number of setbacks that shaved $93 million, or 11 cents per share, from its earnings.
Chiefly among there were lowered production at refineries in Jamaica and Texas due to the Gulf Coast hurricanes that cost $55 million...
I wouldn't be surprised to see more such announcements over the next week or so. Unfortunately, each one of these announcements means I'll have to work a little longer. On the bright side, that means I can continue to post insightful commentary even longer.
