What’s News in Markets: U.S. Steel Deal, SunRun Sinks, 23andMe Slides
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Hey, listeners. It's Saturday, June 21st. I'm Francesca Fontana for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. We had a shortened trading week with Thursday off for the Juneteenth holiday, and the main threads to follow were updates from the Middle East and from the Federal Reserve.

Investors were focused on developments in the conflict between Israel and Iran and how the situation in the Middle East affects volatility and oil prices. Then, Wednesday, the Fed kept interest rates on hold, as expected. Meanwhile, hopes for a quick resolution to the Israel-Iran conflict began to fade. And late Thursday, the White House said that President Trump would make a decision on striking Iran within two weeks. And the major indexes ended the week barely changed.

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In individual movers, let's start with U.S. Steel, the, you guessed it, American steelmaker, which has finally completed its deal with Japan's Nippon Steel. It's been a long time coming. Nippon Steel's acquisition of the company started back in 2023 when it beat out rivals with a $14.1 billion offer, but was blocked from completing the purchase by Joe Biden, the then president, on national security grounds.

Trump's executive order on June 13 allowed it to move forward thanks to a national security agreement with Nippon. That agreement with the federal government calls for Nippon to invest roughly $14 billion in U.S. Steel's domestic operations. The pact also includes issuing a so-called "golden share" to the government, giving it authority over U.S. Steel's production and trade matters.

Trump's executive order came on a Friday, so we got to see the stock's reaction on Monday, when U.S. steel shares jumped 5.1 percent. And the sale ended up being completed on Wednesday.

We're staying in Washington for this next one, shifting our focus to solar stocks like Sunrun. Which fell after Senate Republicans on Monday proposed major revisions to the House's giant tax and spending bill. Long story short, the Senate maintained the full phaseout of solar and wind energy tax credits. The Senate's plan gives more time for projects to use the credits than the House plan did, but the renewable energy industry had hoped for even more beneficial changes.

The credits date back to the Democrats' 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. That wasn't all. Of course, the proposed revisions also include more permanent business tax breaks and deeper cuts to Medicaid. Now, back to Sunrun, whose shares plummeted 40% on Tuesday and notched a weekly loss of about 38%.

Finally, let's talk 23andMe, the DNA testing company whose name probably rings a bell. You or your relatives may have sent off your saliva and got a breakdown of where your ancestors are from. Well, 23andMe has gone from being valued at $6 billion to bankruptcy, with its assets being won last month by biotech firm Regeneron during a bankruptcy auction. The winning bid? $256 million.

But late last Friday, 23andMe said that co-founder Ann Wojcicki was set to regain control of the company after her nonprofit, TTAM Research Institute, offered $305 million for the company's assets, unsolicited, thus reopening the bidding. Those of you playing along at home may recall that the former CEO had made two past offers to take the company private, which were rejected by two different boards of directors.

One board resigned en masse. The second put the company into bankruptcy. And now that it's in bankruptcy, it's delisted from the Nasdaq and trades over the counter. The stock plunged 24% Monday and ended the week down about 21%.

And now you know what's news in markets this week. You can read about more stocks that moved on the week's news in The Score, my column in the Wall Street Journal's Exchange section. Today's show was produced by Zoe Kolkin with supervising producer Talia Arbel. I'm Francesca Fontana. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you next Saturday.

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