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MIDDLETOWN — Some on Wall Street are calling today "Black Friday" as stock prices continue their downward plunge for the eighth straight day of trading.

The price of stock for the area's largest employer, AK Steel Corp. fell from Thursday's closing price of $11.37 to $10.77 when trading began today.

During trading on Friday, Oct. 10, AK stock was trading between $9.95 and $12.70 a share. As of 1 p.m., AK stock was trading at $10.82 a share, which was down 55 cents.

AK stock had hit a high of $73.07 in July, but its value has decreased 75.1 percent in a year to date performance ranking of the Standard & Poor's 500 as of Thursday. At the end of 2007, AK stock was at $46.24 a share according to the ranking.

Alan McCoy, AK Steel's vice president of government and public relations, said in an email response that the steelmaker "has no specific comment on its recent stock price activity."

"All domestic steel company stocks have experienced significant and similar drops," McCoy said. "Likewise, the Dow and other broad market indices have plummeted."

Charles Bradford, a market analyst with Soleil Securities Group in New York, said the steel, copper and aluminum industries are all down.

"Aside from the economic conditions, there are two things happening — hedge fund exemptions and margin calls in the market," he said.

Bradford said the market for steel had been weak for the past two years and that the manufacturing sector benefits from a weak dollar because exports from the U.S. go up and imports go down.

He also said the weak dollar drives up the costs of raw materials.

"The steel industry never had it so good as it has had over the past four years," he said.

Bradford said the strong dollar is good for the overall economy and helps to control inflation, but said it "decimated" the manufacturing sector.

He said back in the 1990s and into the 2000s, everyone blamed trade issues when it was really the result of a strong dollar.

He said the change started about four months ago and is why commodities and oil prices have also started going down in the past couple of months.

As for AK Steel, Bradford said some investors were betting that it would be taken over by another company.

"But when credit became more difficult to get, the possibility of a takeover ended and investors sold, which is one reason why the stock is coming down," he said. "But everyone's stock is down."

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or erichter@coxohio.com.