U.S. Steel Stock Surges on Upgrade. Russian Invasion Set to Help Steel Prices.

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Benchmark steel prices are down about 17% year to date, but have risen about 21% over the past few days, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has continued.

Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images

Shares of

United States Steel

are soaring after catching an upgrade on Wall Street. Despite the ratings bump, Wall Street doesn’t love the stock.

Investors are happy for now, though.

U.S. Steel

(ticker: X) stock is up 6.5% on a down day for markets. The

S&P 500
and

Dow Jones Industrial Average
are down 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively.

Morgan Stanley

analyst Carlos de Alba gets most of the credit for Monday’s rise. On Sunday evening he upgraded shares to Hold from Sell. His price target went to $31 a share up from $21.

An upgrade to Hold isn’t a ringing endorsement, but de Alba acknowledged that the Russia-Ukraine conflict was driving steel metallic prices higher. Metallics typically refer to steel scrap, iron ore, and pig iron, all materials that get bought by steel companies and turned into steel. U.S. Steel owns its own iron ore mines and is better positioned to deal with rising commodity prices.

Benchmark steel prices are down about 17% year to date, but have risen about 21% over the past few days, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has continued.

Falling steel prices had been a problem for U.S. Steel stock in one way. The stock is on a tear, up about 40% year to date. But the stock trades for 3.3 times estimated 2022 earnings. The S&P 500…

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