Dow Today: Home Depot (HD) Leads The Day Higher, Alcoa (AA) Lags

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is trading down 72.0 points (-0.6%) at 12,899 as of Thursday, Aug 2, 2012, 9:35 a.m. ET. During this time, 28 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 687.2 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 877 issues advancing vs. 1,791 declining with 140 unchanged.

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The Dow component leading the way higher looks to be Home Depot (NYSE:HD), which is sporting an 18-cent gain (+0.3%) bringing the stock to $51.86. Volume for Home Depot currently sits at 184,898 shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 12.4 million shares.

Home Depot has a market cap of $79.87 billion and is part of the services sector and retail industry. Shares are up 24.1% year to date as of Wednesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.2%.

The Home Depot, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer. The company's stores sell building materials, and home improvement and lawn and garden products to do-it-yourself, do-it-for-me (at D-I-F-M), and professional customers. The company has a P/E ratio of 19.7, below the average retail industry P/E ratio of 19.8 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Home Depot as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income, revenue growth and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally poor debt management on most measures that we evaluated.

• You can view the full Home Depot Ratings Report.

Holding back the Dow today is Alcoa (NYSE:AA), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a 14-cent decline (-1.7%) bringing the stock to $8.29. This single loss is lowering the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 1.06 points or roughly accounting for 1.5% of the Dow's overall loss. Volume for Alcoa currently sits at 887,531 shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 22.2 million shares.

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Alcoa has a market cap of $9.04 billion and is part of the basic materials sector and metals & mining industry. Shares are down 2.1% year to date as of Wednesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 1.4%.

Alcoa, Inc. engages in the production and management of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina. The company operates in four segments: Alumina, Primary Metals, Flat-Rolled Products, and Engineered Products and Solutions. The company has a P/E ratio of 121, above the average metals & mining industry P/E ratio of 105.9 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Alcoa as a hold. The company's strongest point has been its a solid financial position based on a variety of debt and liquidity measures that we have looked at. At the same time, however, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, deteriorating net income and disappointing return on equity.

• You can view the full Alcoa Ratings Report.

For more information on Alcoa Inc click any of the following:

• Alcoa Inc Stock Price

• Alcoa Inc Analyst Ratings

• Alcoa Inc Key Stats & Profile

• Alcoa Inc Earnings

• Alcoa Inc Ratio Comparison

• Alcoa Inc Growth Rates

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• Alcoa Inc Cash Flow

• Alcoa Inc Income Statement