All the attention of the world society is now tied to the situation in the Middle East, where the conflicts in Syria and Saudi Arabia are escalating and this is causing oil price to skyrocket to 4-year high. 
Federal court of Texas, USA has ordered Apple to pay more than half a billion dollars to the VirnetX as compensation for copyright violations. Apple is being accused of unlawful usage of patents issued for FaceTime video chat and iMessage messenger.
The scrutiny between the companies has been ongoing for eight years already. First suit was filed by VirnetX back in 2010 accusing Apple of violating the patents for four internet communication tools. In consecutive years the company has added more suits to the first one. For example, in 2012 Apple has already lost the case to the company and was ordered to pay $365 million but back then because of the filed court reference the pay-off was delayed.
In 2017 VirnetX once again won the case against Apple for $439.7 million but the court’s decision was later cancelled. The main point of all the court deals for VirnetX is that the main business of the company is owning multiple patents and it was already involved in the court suits with Cisco and Microsoft. Texas was the state of VirnetX’s choice because in this particular state the laws are very soft towards patent companies.
According to the source VirnetX CEO was satisfied with court’s ruling. Reportedly Apple will have to pay $502.6 million, although it is likely that this decision will also be cancelled by the court.
Oil is gaining in the midst of crisis.
Heating up geopolitical crisis in the Middle East appears to be very good for the oil prices as all the major crudes have jumped up to the kevel of 2014.
So, what is going on in the Middle East? Saudi Arabia intercepting fire by pro-Iranian Yemeni rebels’ missile and of course crisis in Syria are causing the crisis. Yesterday Syrian story got new turns as Donald Trump took to Twitter to state that the USA will not stand for the chemical attack that was carried out by the Assad regime with alleged help from Russia.
President Trump warned Assad and Russians that they are to be prepared to the rocket strike on Syrian territory. All of this scared investors into thinking that crude shortage is on the way and that, of course will send prices for the barrel of black gold even higher. Fatih Birol the CEO of International Energy Agency said in an interview “The oil markets are very much linked to geopolitical tensions, especially if they’re in the Middle East, the heart of global oil exports. If tensions continue, they will continue to have an impact on the oil market and prices. Definitely, this will be a reason to push the prices up.”
Although there is a question of US oil output. With American ambitions to become world’s biggest oil exporter all the efforts of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to regulate oil prices will go in vain.
In the meantime, according to White House officials, Donald Trump is still uncertain over the strike on Syria.
Stocks, currencies and crude overview.
With attention of the world tied to the escalating tensions in the Middle East global stocks are showing mixed performance and traders are advised to exercise caution while trading these days.
Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.1 percent.
S&P 500 Futures went up 0.1 percent.
MSCI Emerging Market went down 0.2 percent.
FTSE from UK lost 0.1 percent.
Dollar went down by less than 0.05 percent against the basket of six major currencies.
Yen lost 0.1 percent – 106.86 yen per dollar.
Euro is less than 0.05 percent advanced - $1.2368.
WTI crude is showing the best price per barrel in almost 4 years - +0.4 percent and the price is now $67.06 per barrel.
Gold did not extend previous gains - -0.1 percent with the piece being $1.351.85 per ounce.
