Wednesday 26 April 2017

X - meltdown on lousy earnings

Whilst the main market saw a day of moderate chop, there was a severe meltdown in US steel (X), which settled lower by an outright horrific -26.8% at $22.78. Near term outlook is bearish, as the stock is now below multiple aspects of support, which will now act as upside resistance.


X, daily



X, monthly



Summary

This perhaps sums up the Q1 results for US Steel...

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Seriously though, first see...

https://www.ussteel.com/sites/default/files/reports_filings/USS%20Earnings%20Release%20-%202017%201Q.pdf

via: https://www.ussteel.com/investors/reports-filings
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The market was expecting a moderate profit, and instead saw a very sig' EPS loss of $1.03.

CEO Longhi notes: 'if market conditions... remain at their current levels... 2017 net earnings of approximately $260 million, or $1.50 per share'.

Of course, it will be another full year to know if that target turns out to be correct or not.


Technically broken

The break <$26 is very significant. I could almost understand that the more resilient bulls will argue the stock is now just filling the second of two key downside gaps.

It will likely take the stock some days.. if not a few weeks to build a floor around current levels. From there, things only turn bullish again with a break above the $27/28s - where the 200dma is lurking.

Right now, a monthly close above the key $40 threshold now looks out of range until at least Sept/Oct.
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*for the record, I've not traded X since I sold in the $39s in mid Feb'. I'm currently focused on meddling in other things. Given a few weeks of chop/floor-building, I'd again be interested to pick up X... with a late summer target of at least $30.