Cleveland-Cliffs Stock (CLF) Surges 25% After Trump Doubles Steel Tariffs

Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF) stock rallied on Monday after President Donald Trump doubled steel tariffs to 50%. Trump announced this increased tariff after markets closed on Friday, giving investors all weekend to consider what this means for Cleveland-Cliffs and its fellow U.S.-based steel companies.

According to President Trump, the 25% tariff on steel wasn’t enough to stop foreign companies from getting around it. The President initially considered a 40% tariff, but industry executives pushed for 50%. Trump said, “At 50% nobody’s getting over that fence.”

President Trump said the new steel tariffs will go into effect on Wednesday. The President’s push to revitalize American steel companies started on March 12 when he introduced a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports.

Recent CLF Stock Analyst Coverage

Interestingly, Cleveland-Cliffs stock suffered two analyst downgrades last week. GLJ Research’s Gordon Johnson dropped CLF stock to Sell, and Jefferies’ Chris LaFemina lowered it to Hold. The latter analyst also cut his price target for CLF shares to $6 from $10.

This change came after U.S. Steel (X) agreed to an acquisition by Nippon. That includes a $14 billion investment in U.S. Steel’s existing operations and plans for a new steel mill. LaFemina warned that this will be a negative for most American steel producers.

CLF stock was up 25.21% in pre-market trading on Monday. That’s welcome news to investors as the stock has dropped 37.98% year-to-date and 66.03% over the past 12 months.

Is Cleveland-Cliffs Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold?

Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Cleveland-Cliffs is Hold, based on three Buy, five Hold, and a single Sell rating over the past three months. With that comes an average CLF stock price target of $9.18, representing a potential 57.46% upside for the shares.

See more CLF stock analyst ratings