Investor's Business Daily, April 19th, 2007
Earnings season rolls on, and several steel makers topping Your Weekly Review moved on results.
On Thursday, Reliance Steel RS said Q1 EPS rose 36% on an 86% revenue gain. The news sent shares up 5.06, or 10%, to 56.90.
On Monday, Steel Dynamics STLD topped analysts' estimates but said Q2 results may just meet forecasts. Shares finished Thursday at 44.82, up slightly for the week after erasing Monday's 3% gain.
U.S. Steel X is set to report Tuesday. Industry heavyweight Arcelor-Mittal MT doesn't plan to announce until late May.
Stocks continued to trade tentatively, as the U.S. and overseas economies faced a broad swath of concerns.
An array of stocks continued building bases. Look to Open Text OTEX, MGM Mirage MGM and Omnicell OMCL for a few examples. Few, however, are near buy points, which is why Weekly Review is thin on charts highlighted with a black border.
Many stocks that have managed to break out have struggled to gain traction.
Immucor BLUD, for example, broke out past a 33.55 buy point. But it reversed lower Monday, and is now back near the buy point.
The Energy-Other group, propelled by solar energy stocks, has hurled from 196th to third out of 197 groups ranked by IBD in the past 13 weeks. The solar sector is currently an investor darling. But generally these companies haven't been profitable for long.
The result: Not a single solar issue managed to meet the Review's 85-and-over standard for EPS and Relative Strength ratings.
Only a handful of Weekly Review companies have thus far reported earnings. Next week, 27 of the group are scheduled to report, including Potash Saskatchewan POT, Southern Copper PCU, Core Laboratories CLB and Coach COH.
