Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of United States Steel Corporation (X -2.32%) dropped as much as 11% this morning after the company reported less than stellar earnings.
So what: First-quarter revenue plunged 26% from a year ago to $3.27 billion, and the company swung to a loss of $75 million, or $0.52 per share. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.12 per share, so there was a lot of disappointment from investors today.
Maybe the worst news was a reduction in full-year EBITDA guidance to between $700 million and $900 million from a previous guidance of $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion.
Now what: Management blamed a lot of the decline on what they feel are unfairly traded imports, which have flooded the market and reduced both demand and prices for United States Steel's product. This is a chorus we've heard over and over again from the industry, but it's uncertain if conditions will improve anytime soon. Considering the weak results and lower end market demand in places like energy, I won't be a buyer of United States Steel today and would like to see an improvement in operations before jumping in.
