Nucor Warns on Q4; Investors Shrug

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TheStreet) -- Steelmaker and scrap-metal recycler Nucor(NUE) issued a profit warning Wednesday, saying it expects to break even in the fourth quarter, but investors shrugged off that near-term outlook.

Shares of Nucor traded in negative territory at the start of Wednesday's session, but had swung into the green by late morning. Recently the stock was changing hands at $43.18, up 16 cents, or 0.4%.

In a press release issued before the opening bell Wednesday, Nucor said its bottom line in the fourth quarter, which ends Dec. 31, will likely show a break-even to a "slightly positive" figure. That would fall well short of analysts' consensus per-share estimates of a 28-cent profit.

Still, those results will put an end to a string of quarterly losses throughout 2009. The last time Nucor made money was in the year-ago fourth period, when it took home 34 cents a share in profit.

Nucor blamed the projected shortfall on weak results in the company's "downstream, long products and scrap businesses."

Mill operating rates for the fourth quarter, Nucor said, will probably decline to below 60%. In the third period, Nucor's mills were running at a 69% rate.