Shares of Alcoa (NYSE:AA) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 35,778 call options on the company, AR Network reports. This is an increase of approximately 129% compared to the typical volume of 15,651 call options. Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) stock finished the day at $12.01. Traded volume was 28,890,184 million shares in the last session and the average volume of the stock remained 27.40 million shares. The beta of the stock remained 1.84. Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) insider ownership is 0.20%.

Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR)(NYSE:PBR) sold $8.5 billion of bonds, cementing its position as Latin America’s biggest debt issuer. Petrobras, as the state-run oil company is known, issued debt due between three and 30 years, bringing the total amount of overseas notes issued this year to $13.6 billion. Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) rose 3.28 percent to $11.97 yesterday on volume of 28.34 million shares. The intra-day range of the stock was $11.61 to $12.04. Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) has a market capitalization of $78.07 billion.

North American Palladium Ltd (USA) (NYSEMKT:PAL) reported updates on its ongoing testing and evaluation efforts to keep track of reserves and resources that the company has at its command at the end of the fiscal year 2013. The report is specific to it’s newly under development mining property Lac Des Iles. The report has identified an increase in the LDI reserves that the company can boast of and has in turn increased the live span on of the mine. North American Palladium Ltd (USA) (NYSEMKT:PAL)’s stock on Mar 24, 2014 reported a increase of 20.20% to the closing price of $0.589. Its fifty two weeks range is $0.31 -$1.78. The total market capitalization recorded $161.38 million. The overall volume in the last trading session was 23,972,308 million shares. In its share capital, North American Palladium Ltd (USA) (NYSEMKT:PAL) has 196.89 million outstanding shares.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX) is in a hard place too because of its high debt load. These two Canadian miners were hoping for a smooth market with stable outcomes, but reality got in the way. Now investors are stuck paying the price. On Monday, shares of Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) dropped -4.48% to close the day at $18.53. Company return on investment (ROI) is -35.50% and its monthly performance is recorded as -11.34%. Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) quarterly revenue growth is 12.03%.