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.

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.