Biden blocks US Steel takeover by Japan-based Nippon
CHRIS KLEPONIS/AFP via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Friday announced a decision to block the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan-based Nippon Steel, saying domestically produced steel is essential to U.S. national security.
“Without domestic steel production and domestic steel workers, our nation is less strong and less secure,” Biden said in a statement.
The move marks the latest effort on the part of the Biden administration to protect U.S. markets from foreign-owned firms.
Biden has preserved many of the tariffs imposed by former President Donald Trump, and he enacted a law that would ban China-based social media platform TikTok later this month if the company doesn’t find a new parent company. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments this month in a legal challenge brought by TikTok.
The decision comes weeks after a federal committee declined to issue a recommendation on the merger, leaving Biden an opportunity to block the deal.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, tasked with the potential acquisition, shared concerns about the national security risks posed by the loss of the country’s second-largest steel producer.
In response to the committee’s decision, Nippon Steel alleged the White House had “impermissible undue influence” on the review. Nippon Steel has previously threatened to challenge the White House decision in court.
The fate of U.S. Steel – a storied 120-year-old firm based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – became a lightning rod during the 2024 election season.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The stock market fell in early trading on Tuesday, just hours after the Trump administration’s long-promised tariffs took effect.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 800 points, or 1.8%; while the S&P 500 also fell 1.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 1.6%.
The policy taxes imports from Mexico, Canada and China — the three largest trading partners of the United States — meaning that it could raise prices for everything from gasoline to avocados to iPhones.
Shares of retail giant Target fell 4.5% in early trading on Tuesday, following an earnings release from the company that cited “tariff uncertainty” as a potential impediment for the business. Walmart’s stock price dipped 1% on Tuesday, while Amazon shares fell 2%.
Shares of Best Buy plummeted more than 13% on Tuesday morning. The sharp drop came hours after Best Buy CEO told analysts that price increases are “highly likely” as a result of the tariffs.
Higher costs for car production could also pose a challenge for U.S. automakers, many of which depend on a supply chain closely intertwined with Mexico and Canada.
Shares of Ford tumbled 3% on Tuesday, while General Motors dropped more than 4%. Stellantis — the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler — saw shares plummet more than 7%.
Tesla, the electric carmaker led by Elon Musk, saw its stock price drop nearly 7%.
The far-reaching losses extend a market slide that began on Monday afternoon when Trump affirmed plans to impose a fresh round of tariffs.
Trump stuck to a March 4 start date for 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariff on Chinese goods — which, as of Tuesday, rises to 20%, per an amended executive order.
Tariffs of this magnitude would likely increase prices paid by U.S. shoppers, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to consumers, experts said. The duties also raise input costs for manufacturers that import raw materials.
In addition to Tesla and Amazon, the tariffs appeared to impact some of the other so-called “Magnificent Seven,” a group of large tech firms that helped drive stock market gains in recent years.
Chipmaker Nvidia, which relies on semiconductors from Taiwan but also imports some materials from Mexico, saw shares drop more than 2%.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, suffered a 4% drop in its stock price. Microsoft’s stock fell 1%.
Shares of Alphabet and Google defied the trend, however, remaining essentially unchanged in early trading on Tuesday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The stock market fell in early trading on Tuesday, just hours after the Trump administration’s long-promised tariffs took effect.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 800 points, or 1.8%; while the S&P 500 also fell 1.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 1.6%.
The policy taxes imports from Mexico, Canada and China — the three largest trading partners of the United States — meaning that it could raise prices for everything from gasoline to avocados to iPhones.
Shares of retail giant Target fell 4.5% in early trading on Tuesday, following an earnings release from the company that cited “tariff uncertainty” as a potential impediment for the business. Walmart’s stock price dipped 1% on Tuesday, while Amazon shares fell 2%.
Shares of Best Buy plummeted more than 13% on Tuesday morning. The sharp drop came hours after Best Buy CEO told analysts that price increases are “highly likely” as a result of the tariffs.
Higher costs for car production could also pose a challenge for U.S. automakers, many of which depend on a supply chain closely intertwined with Mexico and Canada.
Shares of Ford tumbled 3% on Tuesday, while General Motors dropped more than 4%. Stellantis — the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler — saw shares plummet more than 7%.
Tesla, the electric carmaker led by Elon Musk, saw its stock price drop nearly 7%.
The far-reaching losses extend a market slide that began on Monday afternoon when Trump affirmed plans to impose a fresh round of tariffs.
Trump stuck to a March 4 start date for 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariff on Chinese goods — which, as of Tuesday, rises to 20%, per an amended executive order.
Tariffs of this magnitude would likely increase prices paid by U.S. shoppers, since importers typically pass along a share of the cost of those higher taxes to consumers, experts said. The duties also raise input costs for manufacturers that import raw materials.
In addition to Tesla and Amazon, the tariffs appeared to impact some of the other so-called “Magnificent Seven,” a group of large tech firms that helped drive stock market gains in recent years.
Chipmaker Nvidia, which relies on semiconductors from Taiwan but also imports some materials from Mexico, saw shares drop more than 2%.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, suffered a 4% drop in its stock price. Microsoft’s stock fell 1%.
Shares of Alphabet and Google defied the trend, however, remaining essentially unchanged in early trading on Tuesday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — TikTok mounted a last-ditch effort at the Supreme Court on Friday meant to stop a ban of the app set to take effect within days — but the platform’s arguments may have landed with a thud.
A majority of the justices appeared inclined to uphold a federal law that would ban the company unless it divests from China-based parent Bytedance.
TikTok has challenged the law on First Amendment grounds, claiming that a ban would limit free-expression rights on a platform used by one of every two Americans. Lower courts, however, have found merit in security concerns about potential data collection or content manipulation that could be undertaken by the Chinese government.
If the court challenge fails and TikTok forgoes a sale, the ban would take effect on Jan. 19, a day before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Experts who spoke to ABC News said the measure would not penalize individuals for accessing or using the app, even after the ban takes hold.
Here’s what to know about exactly how the potential ban would work, and how users could still access TikTok, according to experts:
How exactly would the TikTok ban work?
The law potentially banning TikTok — the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — cracks down on the app by targeting third-party companies vital to the functioning of the platform.
Specifically, the law would restrict app stores and hosting companies, which provide the digital infrastructure on which web services like TikTok depend.
Mandatory withdrawal of the app from major app stores, such as those maintained by Google and Apple, would bar new users from downloading the app and prevent existing users from updating it.
Without updates, the app would degrade in quality over time through inconveniences such as video-loading delays and performance glitches, some experts said.
“If the app were not able to download updates, it would eventually become obsolete,” Qi Liao, a professor of computer science at Central Michigan University, told ABC News.
A separate stipulation would also make it illegal for hosting companies to provide services for TikTok — and the measure offers a fairly broad characterization of such firms.
Hosting companies “may include file hosting, domain name server hosting, cloud hosting, and virtual private server hosting,” the law says.
TikTok would stop functioning if the firm’s U.S.-based hosting companies stopped providing services, experts said.
“For you to pull up TikTok content on your phone, somebody has to be hosting that,” said Timothy Edgar, a computer science professor at Brown University and a former national security official.
At least in theory, however, the social media giant could establish partnerships with hosting companies outside the U.S., putting them out of reach of U.S. enforcement, the experts added.
Such a move would keep TikTok available to U.S. users, but the service would likely be slower and glitchier as the digital infrastructure moves further away, they added.
“The whole point of hosting content is to have it close to users,” Edgar said. “It certainly wouldn’t work in any kind of smooth way.”
Considering potential legal liability, TikTok will likely opt against efforts to preserve its U.S.-based platform in modified form, Edgar added. Instead, he said, services may simply come to a halt, as they did in India in the immediate aftermath of the country’s 2020 ban.
“You’ll get a message saying, ‘Oh, it looks like you’re using the app in the U.S. It’s not available in your country,” Edgar said.
TikTok did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Would TikTok users be able to access the app after the ban?
No matter the extent of potential service interruptions, users would still be able to access TikTok after the ban by using workarounds, experts said.
Users who do so will face technical hurdles and reduced app quality, Liao said. For some, that will likely prove a formidable deterrent; but others may seek out TikTok anyway.
“If they really want to use it, the user will find a way to use it,” Liao said.
Users giving it a shot can rest assured that the conduct is perfectly legal, the experts said.
“If you’re an ordinary user with TikTok on your phone, you’re not a criminal,” Edgar said. “There’s no penalty at all.”
