Why the Dow Was Up Today

All three major stock market indices were up slightly today.

Index	Change	Ending Value
Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEX: ^DJI  )	+32.77 [+0.27%]	12,392.69
Nasdaq (INDEX: ^IXIC  )	+2.34 [+0.09%]	2,676.56
S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC  )	+2.89 [+0.23%]	1,280.70

The biggest news today is the unofficial start of earnings season.

Each quarter, Alcoa (NYSE: AA  ) is the blue-chip first reporter. And today was no different.

Alcoa reported after market close, but it was the biggest winner out of the 30 Dow stocks today (up 2.9%) as investors anticipated good news. The reported news was actually mixed, though. Alcoa's adjusted earnings came out at -0.03, either off a penny or in line with analyst estimates, depending on your preferred source. But Alcoa's Chairman and CEO Klaus Kleinfeld had this to say on the year ahead:

�"For 2012, we expect global aluminum demand to grow 7% and are forecasting a global deficit in primary aluminum supply."

After Alcoa, Bank of America continued its volatile ways, gaining 1.5%. On the losing side, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT  ) was worst off, down 1.3%. Not that we can blame the decline on this tidbit, but this year will be Microsoft's last as a major participant at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Tonight is the final keynote address from CEO Steve Ballmer.�

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