Global indicators for stocks were down Tuesday morning as traders looked at disappointing results from quarterly earnings bellwether Alcoa Ltd.

After markets closed yesterday, aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. said that first-quarter profit was cut in half from a year ago because of higher energy and raw material costs and a weak U.S. dollar.

Net earnings were US$303 million, or 37¢ a share, compared with US$662 million, or 75¢ a share, in the same quarter last year, the company said.

Also Monday, tech bellwether Advanced Micro Devices said it will slash its work force by 10% and projected a bigger-than-expected decline in first-quarter revenue.

Investors will look for urther clues about the health of the U.S. economy, when the minutes from the last Federal Reserve rate-setting meeting are released at 14:00 ET.

Here at home, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 254,700 units in March, slightly down from 255,600 units in February, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said today.

The Canadian dollar opened up 0.10 cent at 98.79 cents US, while commodity prices slipped.

Crude oil was off 31¢ at US$108.78 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and gold declined US$4 to US$922.80 an ounce.

Overseas, the Japanese Nikkei index lost 1.5%, shedding 199.80 points to 13,250.43. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.1%.

The FTSE 100 was down 44.2 points or 0.7% early in the afternoon in London, while the German DAX lost 1.1% and the Paris CAC-40 surrendered one%.

Toronto stocks were solid throughout most of Monday, but lost steam in late afternoon trading as energy and metals issues weighed on markets.

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 76.82 points, or 0.56%, at 13,745.01.

The junior S&P/TSX venture composite index closed up 18.77 points, or 0.74%, at 2551.32.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 3.01 points, or 0.02%, to end at 12,612.43. The S&P 500 moved ahead 2.14 points, or 0.16%, to close at 1,372.54.

Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down 6.15 points, or 0.26%, at 2,364.83.