By Dale Crofts (Bloomberg)

July 8 -- Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA), the world's third-largest aluminum producer, fell to the lowest in more than five months in New York trading before reporting second-quarter profit, which analysts expect to decline.

Alcoa slipped $1.36, or 4.1 percent, to $32.03 as of 12:49 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares earlier dropped to $31.02, the lowest since Jan. 28.

Alcoa is expected to say later today that second-quarter profit excluding some items fell to 65 cents per share, the average estimate of 16 analysts in a Bloomberg survey, amid rising costs for energy and raw materials used to make aluminum. The company earned 81 cents a share a year earlier.

"Costs re-accelerated across the global mining and metals industry in the second quarter, and we expect this will be a defining aspect of the industry's results," Fraser Phillips, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, wrote in a note to investors on July 4. "Increases in energy, caustic soda and coke should feature prominently in Alcoa's results."

Alcoa tracked declines in metals and mining companies amid speculation that slowing global growth may hurt demand for commodities. The eight-company Standard & Poor's 500 Metals & Mining Index dropped as much as 6.8 percent.

Aluminum for delivery in three months fell $164, or 5 percent, to $3,144 a metric ton in London today, after rising to a record yesterday.

"This is a pullback in sympathy with commodity prices," said Chip Hanlon, president of Huntington Beach, California-based Delta Global Advisors Inc. "Also, if it's a general bear market, mining stocks will be sold down regardless. It's getting to the 'baby out with the bathwater' stage."

Century Aluminum Co. (NSDQ: CENX), the second-largest U.S. producer of the metal, fell the most in more than two years today after the company said it will pay $1.71 billion to cancel forward sales contracts with Glencore International AG, its largest shareholder. Monterey, California-based Century plans to sell as many as 7.48 million shares to help fund the transaction.