LIVE: Alcoa reports earnings

Welcome to third-quarter earnings season.

Aluminum giant Alcoa will release its third quarter results after the market close on Thursday.

Analysts estimate that the company generated revenues of $5.64 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.13, according to Bloomberg.

Investors will likely be most interested in what else the company has to say about its split into two publicly traded companies.

Last week, Alcoa announced that it will break up into the Upstream Company, involved in mining, and the Downstream Company, engaged in getting products into industrial clients' hands.

Alcoa is seen as a bellwether for global manufacturing. And as a major global player in commodities, its comments about aluminum demand and China's economy will be closely watched.

As usual, Alcoa's release unofficially kicks off the earnings reporting season; the big Wall Street banks and Alphabet (Google's new parent company) will announce results next week.

In the final hour of trading, Alcoa shares were up about 1%. They have dropped 31% over the last 12 months.

We'll be back with all the details once the earnings release is out.