Alcoa's earnings

The buzzword from AA's earnings will be this --"fuel costs."

Higher fuel costs hurt Alcoa. So that will be bandied around on the street today.

And you'll have to deal with this from the WSJ:

While fourth-quarter earnings doubtless will be far above what they were a year earlier, that largely reflects the deep hole companies were in at the end of 2008, as well as heavy cost cutting since. Indeed, one picture likely to emerge in the next few weeks is that companies remain too cautious and sales too weak to spur much new business investment or hiring.