Rio Tinto's profits could show flat next week

Rio Tinto [NYSE:RTP] is expected to show no gain in earnings when it reports results for the first half of 2007 next week. Analysts say there shouldn't be any curveballs when the company announces its profits after it acquired Canadian aluminium producer Alcan Inc. [NYSE:AL; TSX:AL] earlier this month. A consensus of analysts' forecasts indicates that Rio's underlying earnings will be $3.7 billion for the first half, compared with $3.75 billion for the same period last year.