Alcoa fell US$2.54 to US$30.75 after reducing its forecasts for the third quarter due to labor issues and plant closings. Alcoa expects to earn 30 cents to 35 cents per share, far less than Wall Street's forecast of 52 cents a share.
Visteon cited Ford Motor Co.'s cutbacks in production as a factor in taking a one-time charge of up to US$900 million in the third quarter. The company also warned that profits in the second half of 2004 and for the full year will be "significantly below" expectations. Visteon tumbled US$1.00, or 11 percent, to US$8.00, while Ford slipped 21 cents to US$13.96.
The Walt Disney Co. gained US$0.30 to US$23.16 after chief executive Michael Eisner announced that he would step down as the company's longtime leader on Sept. 30, 2006. Eisner, who relinquished the chairmanship of the company this year amid controversy, said his early announcement would smooth the transition to new leadership.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by more than 4 to 3 on the New York Stock Exchange, where preliminary consolidated volume came to 1.56 billion shares, compared with 1.72 billion on Thursday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies was up 3.73, or 0.7 percent, at 569.91.
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