Biden Decision on US Steel Deal Followed Divide in His Orbit (1)

Two weeks after the US election, hundreds of allies gathered at the White House to soothe Joe Biden in defeat. Tracking the closed-door bash for clues was a group rarely interested in the routine preening of Washington: arbitrage traders.

The traders, who buy and sell the stock of companies in the middle of mergers and acquisitions, and investors were hanging on every event for a clue to the fate of the sale of United States Steel Corp., a hallowed but humbled American giant, to Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp. And the deal’s key opponent, steelworkers union chief David McCall, was at ...