April 25, 2026, 15:05 (EDT) — Cleveland.
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. jumped 7.37% to $9.76 on Friday, with shares clawing back ground after a week spent digesting a first-quarter loss and management’s upbeat cash flow outlook. The steelmaker’s stock seesawed from $9.05 to $9.96 during the session before settling at its latest level.
This shift has some weight as investors weigh whether Cliffs’ first quarter marks the low point, or if it’s simply another leg in an extended cost crunch. MarketBeat flagged a notable spike: 61,622 call options traded Friday—roughly 42% above the usual daily call volume. Shares ticked higher during the day.
Cleveland-Cliffs logged first-quarter revenue of $4.9 billion, up from $4.6 billion a year prior, but ended up with a GAAP net loss of $229 million, or 42 cents per share. Adjusted EBITDA landed at $95 million after taking an $80 million hit from weather-related energy costs. “Short-term headwinds,” is how Chief Executive Lourenco Goncalves summed up the quarter, adding that the company still expects “healthy positive free cash flow” for the second quarter. Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.
Cliffs isn’t your typical steel company. The firm controls the full chain—from iron ore and pellets, all the way to steelmaking, finishing, stamping, and tubing—with an emphasis on higher-value sheet steel for North American carmakers.
That tension over price and volume sits at the heart of the argument. Cleveland-Cliffs’ filing reported first-quarter steel shipments at 4.108 million net tons, off 1% from last year. Average selling price climbed to $1,048 per net ton. Revenue from direct automotive customers hit $1.37 billion; business with distributors and converters edged slightly higher, reaching $1.46 billion.
Management is looking for a stronger second quarter. Chief Financial Officer Celso Goncalves told investors on the call, “Q2 is going to be much better than Q1,” citing expectations for shipments to remain above 4.1 million tons and an estimated $60-per-ton increase in selling prices from the first quarter. The Motley Fool
The bounce snapped past big U.S. steel names. Nucor closed at $214.29, up 0.61%. Shares of Steel Dynamics traded at $226.79, gaining 0.80%. That put Cliffs out front as the more volatile play among the three on Friday’s latest numbers.
The deal cloud hasn’t cleared. Earlier this week, Barron’s noted that sentiment took a hit as the agreement with South Korea’s POSCO remained unresolved, despite Cliffs posting quarterly adjusted EBITDA just above Wall Street’s forecasts.
The company continues to trim its footprint. In its latest quarterly filing, Cliffs flagged plans to idle the Gary plate finishing line and one of the two plate mills at Burns Harbor in the second quarter—a move following recent decisions to idle or close several operations in 2025. The filing also noted the POSCO memorandum of understanding is still contingent on final terms, emphasizing there’s no guarantee the partnership will move forward or generate the financial returns Cliffs is targeting.
The core risk sits in plain sight: steel prices might not climb fast enough to cancel out rising costs for energy, outages, freight, and raw materials. Cash levels at Cliffs looked tight at the end of March, just $45 million, though the company pointed to $3.1 billion in liquidity when including its asset-backed credit line. Capital spending for the next 12 months? About $800 million, according to the company.
So far, Cleveland-Cliffs shares are trading on execution hopes, not a turnaround in reported earnings. What matters next: second-quarter pricing, demand from automakers, cost-cutting—if these translate into real cash flow, not just upbeat guidance.
