- Cliffs Natural Resources (CLF -3.7%) is downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform with a $4 price target, slashed from $8, at BMO Capital, which says the iron ore oversupply is "not letting up."
- BMO analyst Tony Robson writes that CLF's cash flow is under strong pressure from low iron prices, and expects CLF's Australian iron ore, once a strong cash flow generator, to generate little if any cash while the company's U.S. pellets operations are becoming more linked to global prices during a period of weak pricing.
- Robson sees CLF's net free cash flow at $10M in 2015, dipping to negative $200M in 2016 including net interest expense of $170M/year.