A coil of steel.
Tom Mihalek/Getty Images
Cleveland-Cliffs , Freeport-McMoRan and other mining stocks slumped Monday as iron ore futures dropped to $100 a ton amid China’s continued move to curb steel production.
Cleveland-Cliffs (ticker: CLF) dropped 7.5% on Monday to $20.22, while Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) fell 5.1%. United States Steel (X) was down 5.62%.
Futures for iron ore — steel’s key ingredient — traded at about $100 a ton early Monday. The metal’s spot price was at $123, way off its record high price of $233 a ton in May.
China has pledged to limit steel output as it looks to reduce carbon emissions. The country is the world’s biggest steel producer.
A slump in China’s property markets — brought on by contagion fears from the mounting problems at embattled property giant China Evergrande Group — also led metals markets and broader indexes lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 398 points, or 1.15%, to 34,186. The S&P 500 dropped 1.21% and the Nasdaq slumped 1.51%.
Stocks in Hong Kong finished Monday with a loss of 3.3%. Markets in China and Japan were closed for a holiday.
Barron’s highlighted on Friday how cheaply mining stocks have been trading amid worries that the good times in industrial commodities are ending.
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