Buyers came in and scooped up this steel producer on Josh Brown's list after it fell post-earnings
(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — A lot of individual investors think your job in the stock market is to guess what’s going to happen and place your bets accordingly, especially in front of meaningful binary events like earnings reports. This sort of behavior is childish and unsophisticated. Professionals trade earnings reactions. They don’t treat these seasons like a night at the casino. You need to stop that s*** too. One of the key things we look for after an earnings report is the behavior of the buyers and sellers — way more important than the “beat the number” game the media plays. The numbers are the numbers. I want to know how they were reacted to. Today’s spotlight is on a heavy industrial whose shareholders reacted to a “miss” with a kneejerk sell. And then, later that day, the buyers came in. The buyers are not focused on what happened last quarter. They’re focused on the next year. I love that action. Here’s Sean with the lowdown on Nucor (NUE) , a domestic steel producer you probably haven’t heard about in 25 years. Well, it’s a Best Stock in the Market and you should know why. Best stock spotlight: Nucor Corp. (NUE) Date added: Nov. 21, 2025 Sean — Nucor is an old-economy, cyclical industrial. It was founded in 1905 originally focused on automobiles, but post-WWII they pivoted to the steel business, which it dominates today. Nucor is now the largest steel producer and recycler in the United States, operating 25 mills. Nucor manufactures and produces steel products by utilizing raw materials and recycled scrap metal. This is a massive operation. In 2024, Nucor recycled 18 million tons of scrap steel. The company operates three segments: Steel mills: Produces light and heavy steel used in automobiles, appliances, pipes, bridges, turbines, ships, and other industrial and infrastructure applications. Steel products: Takes steel and applies value-added processing to create more engineered products such as steel bars, metal buildings, data-center racking, doors and custom utility structures. Raw materials: A vertically integrated segment that supplies inputs to the steel mills and steel products businesses and also sells materials to third-party customers. NUE just reported earnings on Tuesday, where it missed on top and bottom lines. Parts of the report were disappointing, mainly an earnings decrease due to lower volumes and margin compression in sheet steel products. The stock gapped down about 6% in response but it nearly erased that gap as of today, down only 2% from its pre-earnings level. The forward outlook, however, looks strong, with steel mill shipments expected to grow 5% year over year. Backlogs are expanding rapidly, up 40% year over year in the steel mills segment and 15% in the steel products segment. This growth is being driven by strength across several end markets, including infrastructure, data centers, energy, and advanced manufacturing. In this current quarter, management expects higher earnings with improved margins for all three segments due to higher volumes and higher realized pricing as price increases were announced across “almost every product group, sheet, plate, bar, and beam.” according to the CEO. Nucor is transforming itself into a less cyclical, durable industrial as we head into the next phase of this AI-driven market. Now here’s Josh with the risk management… Risk management Josh — Nucor remains in a well-defined uptrend and is digesting gains after pushing to new highs earlier this month. Price has pulled back toward the rising 50-day in the mid-$160s, which has acted as support throughout this advance. The ranges are shrinking. The volatility is declining. I take this as a signal of increasing confidence and I like it when the buyers come in after bad news. When there’s a lack of downside follow-through, we learn something about the investor base. It suggests the pullback is still consolidation after strength rather than a loss of control. For shorter-term traders, a failure to hold and stabilize around the 50-day would be a walk-away moment. The good news is this level is close and you won’t have to wait long to find out if you’re wrong. Confidence improves if this pullback can resolve with buyers stepping in near the 50-day, particularly if closes begin to firm up and momentum stabilizes. RSI has cooled back toward the mid-50s, consistent with a reset rather than exhaustion so far. Investors should wait for the breakout to new highs. $150 is a support level that had been meaningful on multiple occasions. Below it and you can guess the run is over. 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