Afternoon Markets: Dow races ahead as Alcoa shines

The Dow Jones raced to a near 75-point lead in early trading on Thursday thanks in part to strong gains from aluminium giant Alcoa.

Shortly into trading, the index was up more than 73 points (0.76%) to 9,799.34. Alcoa climbed 4.3% to $14.81 after company profits reached four cents a share, beating analysts' estimates. It says increasing demand, stronger aluminium prices and an aggressive cost cutting programme helped it achieve the positive Q3 results. Elsewhere, weekly jobless claims fell 33,000 to 521,000 last week, the lowest figure since early January Intel Corp topped the losers list, dropping 0.51% to $19.65. In the UK, miners helped the FTSE to a healthy lead in late trading. Shortly before 4pm, the i...