Morning Market News – Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI), Ford (NYSE:F), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)

According to the US Labor Department, wholesale prices declined more than anticipated last month.  February saw prices fall 0.6%, twice more than initially expected.  This is the largest decline in wholesale prices since July of last year.  Economists are attributing most of this decline to fluxuations in energy and food prices, as the core PPI (Producer Price Index) actually rose 0.1% last month.  The PPI excludes the volatile food and energy markets, and beat the experts predictions last month (A 0.1% decline was anticipated).

This decline in wholesale prices decreases the threat of inflation, while an increase in core PPI also decreases the possibility of the dreaded deflation.  This is good news for the markets, and no doubt increased investor confidence.  The US stock markets were up today accordingly.  In the world markets, OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) has announced that it’s leaving oil production quota levels unchanged after a recent meeting in Vienna, which caused an increase in oil prices.

News from Blockbuster’s (NYSE:BBI) recent internal audit appears to be poor, causing the stock to tumble.  The struggling video chain is now seriously flirting with the idea of voluntary bankruptcy, a move they had announced as possible to investors a month ago.  Video store business is down due to the growing popularity of streaming video, DVD mailings, and rental kiosks.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) continues to announce good news, as their European sales totals have climbed 1.8% for the new year.  According to Fox Business, Italy leads the pack in the purchase of the American auto-giants cars.  Despite the increase in sales numbers, Ford’s overall market share remained stable, declining just 0.3% for the year.  So far they’ve sold approximately 93,000 vehicles to European customers in 2010.

Shares of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) broke resistance yesterday to set a new 52-week high.  The tech companies stock has been rising steadily for the past two weeks.  In other tech news, a jury has awarded $106 million to company VirnetX after determining that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) violated two of it’s patents.  Bill Gates’ tech giant has said it’s disappointed with the ruling and plans to appeal.

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