The U.S. manufacturing industries seem to be bracing for a significant slowdown or recession by the looks of their steel inventories:

“End-users have no excess inventories and service center inventories were cut to only 2.6 months supply at the start of November.” ~Purchasing.com, Analysts see sheet steel prices inflating 13% in 2008 11/20/07

However, if whatever the Fed does between now and February does stabilize the economy, keeping it swimming above a recession, the steel stocks might be a good place to run to. With steel inventories as low as they’ve been in a long while, any pickup in manufacturing activity or just increase of stockpiles could fuel a nice snapback rally for steel: