A number of major steel stocks could be in for a round of profit taking
Steel stocks have soared up the charts in 2016, receiving an extra boost earlier this month from Donald Trump's surprise election win. However, the steel and iron sector has
reached overbought territory, and a number of steel stocks were hit hard on Tuesday by bearish analyst attention.
Specifically, Macquarie downgraded
AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE:AKS) and
Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ:STLD) to "neutral," while cutting its outlook on
Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE) to "underperform." Meanwhile,
United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) was hit with a downgrade to "hold" from "buy" at Argus.
What's more, all four of these steel stocks are trading near key round year-to-date percentage return numbers, leaving them vulnerable to short-term profit taking. For AKS, the shares are trading near their 300% year-to-date level.
Meanwhile, STLD is currently sitting on a 97% year-to-date advance, after being rejected by its 100% year-to-date level a few days back.
Turning to NUE, the stock continues to hug its 50% year-to-date marker, which acted as resistance earlier this month.
Lastly, X was just pushed back below its 300% year-to-date level yesterday.
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