MARKET TALK: BHP Bid For Alcoa Unlikely - Analyst

STOCK CALL: BHP Billiton (BHP.AU) unlikely to launch bid for Alcoa (AA), Stock Resource analyst Steve Bartrop says. Notes BHP already has low cost smelters and unlikely to be interested in Alcoa's high cost U.S. smelters. Bartrop says the Australian assets would raise competition issues and outgoing chief executive Chip Goodyear unlikely to launch such a major deal in his last months in the job. "Chip has announced his retirement by the end of the year and he is not likely to do anything radical like this in the interim," he says. Notes Rio Tinto (RIO.AU) would face less competition issues.