Stock markets were mixed on Thursday morning following a slightly better-than-expected PPI reading. In March, U.S. headline PPI rose 0.2% after increasing 0.6% in February and 0.4% in January. Prices for final demand services advanced 0.3%, while goods prices declined 0.1%. This brings annual PPI to 2.1%, up from 1.6% last month. Core PPI rose 0.2% after advancing 0.3% in February. The annual core PPI rate now stands at 2.8%, up from 2.7% in February. Leading the increase in services was the index for securities brokerage and investment-related services, which rose 3.1% -- while prices for traveler accommodation services declined 3.8%. A major factor in the decrease for final demand goods was energy, which decreased 1.6% -- while food prices advanced 0.8%, led by a 10.7% increase for processed poultry. The Dow was down 0.4%, while the S&P 500 was flat and the Nasdaq was up 0.5%. Crude oil traded above $85 per barrel and gold rose $12 to $2360 per ounce.

The Vickers Top Insider Picks is a daily report that utilizes a proprietary algorithm to identify 25 companies with compelling insider purchase histories based on transactions over the past three months.

Amazon is a leading online retailer and one of the highest-grossing e-commerce aggregators, with $386 billion in net sales and approximately $578 billion in estimated physical/digital online gross merchandise volume in 2021. Retail-related revenue represents approximately 80% of the total, followed by Amazon Web Services' cloud computing, storage, database, and other offerings (10%-15%), advertising services (5%), and other. International segments constitute 25%-30% of Amazon's non-AWS sales, led by Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Asbury Automotive Group is a regional collection of automobile dealerships that went public in March 2002. The company operates 138 new-vehicle stores, seven used-vehicle stores, and 32 collision centers. Over 70% of new-vehicle revenue is from luxury and import brands. Asbury also offers third-party financing and insurance products and its own F&I products via Total Care Auto. Asbury operates in 14 states (mostly Texas, the West, and the Southeast). Asbury store brands include David McDavid and Park Place in Texas, and the Larry H. Miller brand in the Western U.S. It plans to acquire Koons in the Washington, D.C. area in late 2023 or early 2024. Asbury generated $15.4 billion of revenue in 2022 and is based in the Atlanta area. The firm targets about $32 billion in 2025.