What began with an investigation involving the iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, CA mass killing last year has now spun out into a vividly hostile public fight between Apple (AAPL) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The government and the world’s largest company have reached a major impasse which looks to be much bigger than a simple criminal case.

The DOJ released a statement relating to Apple’s “false,” “corrosive” rhetoric, at odds with no less than “the courts, the 4th Amendment and Democratically elected branches of government.” Apple’s lawyers were insidious, apparently deeply offended by the DOJ’s inferences about its “surreptitious possible relationship with the Chinese government,” (as reported by CNBC’s Eamon Javers this morning). “…As if Apple had invoked J. Edgar Hoover overseeing the assassination of John F. Kennedy…” What?!

The best chance to have made a solid agreement in the San Bernardino case was earlier, when the two sides were talking in private. Now not only is this fight very public, it’s going to start winning headlines because of the colorful language now being used, and perhaps will be picked up as a main campaign issue for the 2016 election season.

Near-term effects to Apple’s stock have not made much of a ripple so far — AAPL has traded flat over the past week — but shares have been trading at discounted levels since last summer, pretty much in line with when China devalued the yuan, setting off markets tremors everywhere. So it’s no surprise there is a deep connection between Apple and China, but we may expect to uncover some more surprises regarding this relationship as the DOJ case moves forward. Apple stock is down 20 percent year over year.

The European Central Bank (ECB) “bazooka” started things off with a bang yesterday, as futures rose following the interest rate cut to zero. But cuts in guidance for growth and inflation this year and next forced a big sell-off, which influenced a big drop in the Dow Jones here at home. Eventually the Dow fought back to near even on the day, but it was quite the ride. Dow futures are up big — 147 points — in today’s pre-market.

Import prices in February fell 0.3 percent, down 1.0 percent month over month. Year over year, import prices have fallen 6.1 percent, though analysts had expected -6.5 percent.

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