Moments ago Alcoa did what it always does following the now traditional several weeks of guidedowns heading into the earnings release that until recently used to kick off the earnings season for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (at least until Alcoa was unceremoniously kicked out): it beat, and beat significantly, with Wall Street expecting $0.27 in Q4 EPS, Alcoa reported a whopping $0.33, a material beat to expectations.