P.M. BRIEFING : Alcoa’s Earnings Down 46%

Aluminum Company of America said today that first-quarter earnings were $148.6 million, or $1.69 a share, down 46% from $276 million, or $3.12 a share, in the first quarter of 1989.

Revenues were $2.6 billion in the first quarters of both 1990 and 1989, Alcoa said.

Chairman Paul O’Neill attributed the earnings decline in part to operations of the company’s Brazilian affiliate, Alcoa Aluminio, which broke even for the 1990 first quarter but was subject to “rampant inflation in that country.”