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.

President Joe Biden on Friday blocked a nearly $15 billion sale of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp., throwing the local future of the country’s once-dominant steelmaker into question.

If the deal does not go through, Nippon Steel would have to pay a US$565 million break-up fee. Read more at straitstimes.com.