Alcoa Strikes a Disturbing Note

Alcoa (AA - commentary - Trade Now) can wait. That's right, it can wait until the end of the reporting period. Now I know that when a company reports doesn't matter, but I always have to remind people that this beleaguered company has so often colored the corporate quarterly report card that we simply baffle ourselves into a lack of clarity because of this one company.

But for the first time, Alcoa actually said something political that was worthy. The company said that China was stimulating right by getting people to spend, and that spending will make it so Alcoa makes more money.

In fact, you got two compelling takeaways from this company:

1. The reason why its quarter wasn't so horrible was because it fired a lot of people in the U.S.
2. China's stimulus plan is so good that it is the engine of the world's economies.

I say ouch. We want to be the engine of the world's economies, and we want to be hiring, not laying off. Alcoa gave us the opposite.

Of course, if I ran Alcoa, I would say, "Let's get the heck out of the U.S. where there is no stimulus and build plants in China to meet the demand there. Let's not hire here; it is profitless. Let's hire there; it is bountiful.

In essence, whether it meant to or not, Alcoa made a political statement, and it is one that I think will be the theme of this quarter's earnings report.

It's true that today was a "nice" day for the markets, but Alcoa makes me feel that we are going to see a ton of reports saying the same thing.

Good for the rest of the world. Not so hot for here.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in stocks mentioned.

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Know What You Own: In Thursday's trading, the most active stocks include Bank of America (BAC - commentary - Trade Now), the S&P Depositary Receipts (SPY - commentary - Trade Now), Alcoa (AA - commentary - Trade Now), the Financial Select SPDR (XLF - commentary - Trade Now), Citigroup (C - commentary - Trade Now), the PowerShares QQQ (QQQQ - commentary - Trade Now) and General Electric (GE - commentary - Trade Now).

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