The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Reuters on CLF’s 4Q13 results:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/cliffs-shares-rise-hours-earnings-004526134.html

Cliffs Natural Resources...reported much better-than-expected earnings helped by a drop in costs and higher iron ore prices. Shares in the iron ore and metallurgical coal producer surged 7 percent in after-hours trading to $23.42.

…Excluding various one-off items, Cliffs earnings were $218 million, or $1.22 per share, up from $89 million, or 63 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. That was well ahead of analysts' expectations of 77 cents a share, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

…Cliffs expects accelerating economic growth in the United States and continued growth in China in 2014 to support steel production and thus demand for the steelmaking raw materials that the company supplies.

The P/E ratio is silly low, IMO.