Steel shares up after Obama talks infrastructure
1 hour ago - Reuters
Steel shares up after Obama talks infrastructure
NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. steelmakers rose onWednesday on hopes that President Barack Obama's call for rebuilding thenation's infrastructure will boost the stagnant industry.
"Thecomments by the president last night were helpful," analyst CharlesBradford of Bradford Research in New York said of Obama's State of theUnion address to Congress on Tuesday. "The infrastructure is one bigpositive for steelmakers."
Bradford noted that in addition tocalling for rebuilding America's roads and bridges, which would uselarge amounts of steel, the president also set a 2035 target of 80percent of U.S. power needs coming from clean energy sources, such asnuclear and solar.
"That would be a lot of nuclear plants that use a lot of steel," Bradford said.
Analysts also noted that U.S. Steel Corp (X) and AK Steel (AKS) both gave positive outlooks for the industry this year, despite posting quarterly losses on Tuesday.
In morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, AK Steel stock was4.6 percent higher at $16.29, U.S. Steel was up 3.2 percent at $59.16and Nucor (NUE) rose 3.2 percent to $46.40. On Nasdaq, Steel Dynamics (STLD) was 3.6 percent higher at $18.98. (Reporting by Steve James; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)