Trump, Biden and the $565m risk hanging over Nippon Steel's U.S. Steel deal

TOKYO -- Investors who took Nippon Steel's $14 billion-plus bid for U.S. Steel as a buy sign are now seeing another kind of signal: the blinking yellow light of political risk.

"I would block it instantaneously. Absolutely," former U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters last week on the campaign trail, mentioning the proposed deal for the first time. U.S. Steel is headquartered in Pennsylvania, a major swing state in the November presidential election.