Dow Adds 32.14 on New Data
Blue-chip stocks racked up large gains today following an unexpected decline in August producer prices and a renewed drop in Treasury bond yields.</br></br>The Dow Jones industrial average rose 32.14 points to close at 3621.63, with advancing issues leading declining ones by 2 to 1 on volume of 266 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange. The index ended the week with a loss of 12.3 points.</br></br>The Labor Department said the producer price index fell 0.6 percent in August, depressed by a record 25.6 percent drop in tobacco prices.</br></br>Despite the skewing of the figure because of tobacco, analysts said the price index figure was still favorable and confirmed a weak inflation picture.</br></br>"Tobacco really distorted the headline figures," said Robert Walberg of MMS International. "But even so, it's a very friendly number."