Giant aluminium firm Alcoa reported on Monday that its second quarter net income peaked to $155 million, far exceeding the company's previously announced earnings guidance and improving from the quarterly loss it suffered from the previous year.

Alcoa has been the traditional drumbeater of major companies which should be releasing their profit results by this time of the year as IG Markets strategist Ben Potter observed that the company initiated an encouraging start for the US profit reporting season by announcing earnings that breached expectations.

Mr Potter said that Alcoa is a good lead for the US economy since their business is arrayed on various sectors such as "airlines, consumer goods, cars, that sort of thing so it seems a very good gauge of what's happening across the broader economy."

He added that the company has been regarded as a 'pretty good bellwether' for the whole economy owing to the scope of its business and its encouraging results should be a good boost though "it's certainly by no means the be-all and end-all but it's certainly a very solid start."

Mr Potter pointed to the fact that Alcoa's latest results underscored the company's growth by actually experiencing demand spikes for its business instead of merely implemented measures that led to reduced operating costs.

He argued that compared to last year postings, where companies resorted to cost-cutting means to achieve positive results, Alcoa's result was one of the major positives as "they were able to grow due to increasing demand in all of their business units which translated into higher volumes."