The daily business briefing: May 25, 2018

1. Court orders Samsung to pay Apple $539 million

A California jury on Thursday said Samsung should pay Apple $539 million in damages for copying features in the original iPhone. The legal battle began in 2011 when Apple accused its South Korean rival of infringing on its patents. Apple was awarded $1.05 billion a year later, but Samsung appealed to the Supreme Court, which returned the case to a lower court that reduced the damages to $399 million in an earlier retrial. Samsung already paid Apple the $399 million, so if the new verdict is upheld, Samsung will pay $140 million more. Apple said it was entitled to $1 billion, the profit Samsung made selling infringed phones. Samsung said it should only pay $28 million, the profits from the features covered by the patents.

Reuters Bloomberg

2. Mortgage rates hit 7-year high

The average fixed 30-year mortgage rate rose in the last week from 4.61 percent to 4.66 percent, the highest since May 2011, mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday. The rate has risen from 3.95 percent at the start of the year as a strengthening economy and higher inflation pushed up yields on 10-year Treasury bonds, which directly affect mortgage rates, to about 3 percent. The higher borrowing costs have contributed to a slowdown in home sales, which fell by 2.5 percent last month. Home sales were down by 1 percent from January to April over the same period last year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

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USA Today

3. Uber self-driving SUV's automatic brake was disabled in fatal crash

The self-driving Uber SUV that fatally struck a pedestrian in Arizona in March spotted the woman six seconds before the accident but didn't stop because an emergency braking system had been disabled, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday. The automatic braking mechanism is not turned on while Uber's test vehicles are under computer control "to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior," federal investigators said. Instead, the vehicles rely on a human backup driver while in automated mode. A video of the inside of the Uber vehicle involved in the crash showed the backup driver looking down just before the crash, which killed 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. The driver began steering less than a second before impact, and didn't brake until a fraction of a second after.

The Associated Press

4. European Commission and Gazprom reach antitrust settlement

The European Commission said Thursday it had reached a settlement with Russian energy giant Gazprom to end an antitrust investigation. The commission filed charges against Gazprom, which dominates regional gas markets, accusing it of violating the trading bloc's antitrust rules, leading to increased gas prices in five Central and Eastern European countries. Gazprom last year agreed to address the complaints, and under the settlement it made a series of concessions official. Gazprom won't face financial penalties, but if it violates the terms of the settlement the commission can impose stiff fines.

The New York Times

5. Stocks firm up as North Korea reacts coolly after Trump cancels summit

U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday despite recovering most of the early losses that came after President Trump canceled his planned June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 1 percent after Trump released a letter to Kim saying the meeting was off due to the "tremendous anger and open hostility" recently expressed by North Korean officials. Trump later said the meeting still could happen at some point, and the Dow closed down by just 0.3 percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite finished down by 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. On Friday, U.S. stock futures edged higher as North Korea reacted calmly to Trump's comments.

The Associated Press MarketWatch