Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is set to report its earnings for its third quarter Wednesday after the market closes. This quarter has been a roller coaster for Alcoa due to developments in the aluminum market and strategic moves within the company. 24/7 Wall St. has created a full 360-degree earnings preview for Alcoa that includes earnings estimates, color on recent corporate news, a review of the stock chart and trading history, and the expectations from options traders.

Thomson Reuters has consensus earnings estimates of $0.23 per share on $5.85 billion in revenues. The same quarter in the previous year showed earnings of $0.11 per share and $5.76 billion in revenues. Estimates for the fourth quarter are $0.20 in earnings per share and $5.79 billion in revenues.

In July, the company reaffirmed its global growth projections of 8% to 9% for the aerospace sector in 2014. This is following the increase in demand that the sector is pushing from rebuilding its fleets. Boeing, in particular, contracted Alcoa in September to be the sole supplier of wing skins on all of its planes — the contract is worth over $1 billion.

Alcoa recently announced plans to open the world’s largest aluminum-lithium plant. The total cost of the plant was set at $90 million. Expectations for the plant are that it will produce more than 20,000 metric tons of aluminum lithium. This plant is being built in response to the growing demand for aluminum lithium in the aerospace market from companies such as Boeing and Airbus.

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Alcoa has been reducing its dependence on aluminum and alumina prices. The move to supplying directly for planes and autos was a fortuitous windfall for the company. The management finally can distance itself from the old projection that the global aluminum market will double by 2020. If that occurs, perhaps Alcoa’s new efforts will have made it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The chart shows a picture that investors will want to pay attention to. The key 50-day moving average has been an overhang for Alcoa shares since mid-September. That average is currently $16.33 and above the current share price. The 50-day moving average also looks like an overhang now, so investors could expect that this might be a key level of resistance if the stock rises after earnings. The 200-day moving average is all the way down at $13.80, almost $2 under the current share price. Considering the rally we have seen in Alcoa shares, it would seem that this 200-day moving average likely will be considered major support if the earnings news reaction is to the downside.

Stock options remain skewed on the bullish side despite the drop in shares on Wednesday ahead of the report. The speculative call options strike prices for October (weekly and monthly expirations) have a much higher open interest of about 90,000 contracts from the $16 to $18 strike prices. This would seem bullish on the surface, but it may simply be a series of contracts that have been left open. After looking at the speculative puts and calls for October, it really looks as though options traders are braced for a move of only up to 4% in either direction.

Alcoa saw its shares drop roughly 2% to $15.65 almost immediately after the opening bell Wednesday morning. In just the first hour of trading, more than 5 million shares had traded for this aluminum giant, compared to the average volume of 17.8 million. The company’s stock has a consensus analyst price target of $16.88 and a 52-week trading range of $8.09 to $17.36. Its market cap is $18 billion.

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