Main market news: Trying to extend Friday's rally

Apple 2.0 is examining Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) advertising schedule. Specifically it examines the correlation between Apple ads for its products, in this case the iPhone, vis-a-vis its press exposure.

First, a judge rejected Thursday the request by the FTC to block the $565 million merger of Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) and Wild Oats Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: OATS) causing the stocks to end 7.6% and 17.8% higher on Friday respectively. Then the WSJ said that the FTC will appeal the ruling. With the end of this merger story still to be written, Bear Stearns downgraded OATS to Peer Perform for Outperform.

Some now question whether the judge's refusal to block the merger of WFMI and OATS could help other deals to be approved, specifically that of Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR). Personally I still don't think the two mergers are similar in nature and neither does Doug McIntyre.

Union members representing about 2,000 of Delphi Corp.'s hourly workers voted to ratify a new four-year contract with the auto parts supplier. This may have an impact on U.S. automakers such as Ford and GM today.

eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY) Skype said its Internet phone service has finally returned to normal. Many of its 220 million users worldwide couldn't log on for two days due to a software bug. Skype apologized and said it will explain more today.

As Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) continues its attempts to further increase its presence in social networking, the search giant revealed today it had acquired a stake in Chinese community web site Tianya.cn. No details were given, not even the size of the stake. China is the world's second largest internet market.

After cutting the price of the Xbox 360 in the U.S. by 13%, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is now cutting the European price for its Xbox 360 video game console by €50 to €349.99 ($470).

Get the latest on cars and trucks
from GM and all brands at AOL Autos.