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Alcoa reported stronger first-quarter earnings on Wednesday that beat analysts' expectations.

The company was benefitted from its strategy of moving more business to higher-value products for the aerospace and automotive industries.

The company reported net income of $195m for the quarter to the end of March, compared with a loss of $178m the same time a year ago. Quarterly revenues rose 6.7% to $5.82 billion, below the $5.94 billion projected by Wall Street analysts.

During a conference call on Wednesday CEO Klaus Kleinfeld said, "The good news is, we have invested in the innovation and in the growth on the aerospace side. And it's happening better than we expected".

Jamie Dimon, head of JPMorgan Chase & Co., said that previous year's volatility in US Treasuries has come up as a 'warning shot' to the investors. He also said that the next financial crisis could get worse due to the shortage of the securities.

In a letter to shareholders, Dimon, the New York-based bank's chairman and chief executive officer, on Wednesday, said that the October 15 gyration, when the Treasury yields showed a fluctuation of almost 0.4 percentage point, was an 'unprecedented move' that would have serious consequences in a stressed environment. Treasuries should have the most stable securities.

According to WalletHub report on the best and worst states for taxpayers, Illinois and Iowa were ranked as the worst taxpayers.

The report wrote, "The average American household pays roughly $17,000 in federal income taxes each year. And while we're all faced with the same burden in that regard, there is significant disparity when it comes to state and local taxes".

This means that it makes a big difference where you live while paying state and local taxes. The report calculated relative income tax obligations by applying the average American's income to the effective income taxes rate in each state and locality.

Direct broadcast satellite service provider DirecTV has discontinued the ad campaign that has drawn complaints from rival Comcast Corporation.

Representatives of DirecTV said that they are thinking about dropping the Rob Lowe commercials in support of a new campaign. The major complaints are from Comcast. Comcast made claims for the Rob Lowe commercials and after considering the accusations made by Comcast, the National Advertising Division (NAD) suggested that DirecTV stop making some of the claims in the ads.

Chief executive of Zynga, Don Mattrick, will be replaced by the company's founder and chairman Mark Pincus. Zynga provides social game services and was founded in July 2007. Mattrick has stepped down and this is not a surprise as Mattrick didn't succeed in turning around the situation of the company.

Zynga is not doing well in its financial performance. The company is making efforts in order to find a grip against Supercell (Clash of Clans), King (Candy Crush Saga) and Machine Zone (Game of War) in a mobile game market, which could reach $30 billion this year.

Police officer Michael Slager killed Walter Scott, 50, on Saturday after shooting him five times. The police officer first shot him with a stun gun and fired at least eight shots as Scott was running away.

The police officer was charged for the murder of an unarmed black man on Tuesday. It could be clearly seen in a video that surfaced later after somebody captured it on a cellphone that Slager methodically shot the fleeing Scott in the back.

An analysis published in Columbia-based newspaper The State has indicated that South Carolina police officers have shot 209 suspects in the past five years. Nearly 100,000 residents reside in North Charleston and it's a city at the third position when it comes to a history of being lenient with its police officers.