The steel producer is idling two Minnesota facilities
Iron & steel stock Cleveland-Cliffs Inc (NYSE:CLF) was last seen down 3.5% at $9.20, after news broke that the steel producer will temporarily idle two Minnesota facilities. The move, reported by the Star Tribune, will result in hundreds of job cuts as auto manufacturers scale back orders in response to uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s evolving tariff policies.
On the charts, CLF sports a 2.2% year-to-date deficit. The equity is also off 57.1% over the last 12 months and heading for its worst weekly drop since mid-December, though it's still attempting to distance itself from its March 11, more than four-year low of $8.50.
Short interest has started to tick up, rising 28.6% over the last two reporting periods. The 54.24 million shares sold short represent 11.2% of the stock's available float. It would take three days for shorts to cover, at CLF's average daily pace of trading.
Meanwhile, at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), Cleveland-Cliffs stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 8.08 ranks in the 82nd percentile of annual readings. This means options traders have been much more bullish than usual over the last two weeks.