Stocks in the news: Alcoa, Google, Amgen, NRG

The following post rounds up the companies making headlines today:

Alcoa Inc. (AA) will kick off earnings season late Wednesday when it will be the first Dow component to deliver quarterly results. The aluminum giant is expected to report a second quarter loss of 34 cents per share, according to First Call, or 32 cents per share according to Reuters estimates. This would be its third consecutive quarterly loss.

Google (GOOG) is planning yet another challenge to Microsoft (MSFT) as the search giant now plans to enter the computer operating system business. Already challenging the Office suite on PCs with Google Documents and Windows Mobile with the Android software among others, now Google is attacking Microsoft head on.