Sprinters and marathon runners employ vastly different techniques and training regimens. Investors banking upon a quick sprint to domestic economic recovery may wish to pace their expectations … and prepare instead for an arduous journey.
Steelmaker AK Steel
Like modern history's laundry list of doping sprinters, however, AK Steel required a set of stimulative injections to obtain this result. Heavily weighted in the production of value-added products for use in the automotive and appliance industries, AK Steel joins automakers like Ford
As we have discovered, steroid use pervades sports culture in ways that could scarcely have been imagined just a decade ago. The same can be said for Washington and Wall Street, where stimulus is the performance-enhancing elixir that must not be overlooked by discerning stock fans. Overall, stimulus efforts have been heavily criticized within the manufacturing sectors, as when Nucor
Back inside AK Steel's locker room, investors found another quick fix that could impact performance down the road. The company recorded a "significant LIFO credit" during the fourth quarter. As I explained in the case of refiner Calumet Specialty Products
Without a boost from performance-enhancing injections via government stimulus and quick-fix accounting measures, I suggest that AK Steel's fourth-quarter sprint to profitability will lack the endurance to complete a marathon. Noting a decidedly more cautious tone emerging from competitors like Commercial Metals
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