Abreast of the market: Industrials drop 10.38 to 4038.37 on data about producer prices
NEW YORK -- Stock prices eased as producer-price increases unnerved inflation-leery investors.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 10.38 points, or 0.26%, to 4038.37. The broader indexes also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500-Stock Index dropped 1.01 to 491.88; the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index declined 0.38 to 266.15, and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.86 to 807.38. The American Stock Exchange Market Value Index was one of the few major indexes to buck the overall trend, rising moderately, by 0.87 to 454.78.</br></br>The Dow Jones Transportation Index lost 7.46 to 1569.37, while the Utilities Index slid 0.85 to 187.85.</br></br>Volume was 309.5 million shares. Declining issues edged out advancers, 1,145 to 1,008.</br></br>Analysts pointed to data on producer-level prices released in the morning by the Labor Department as a reason for the decline. Stocks followed bonds down in the morning after the release of the data but failed to rebound along with them in the early afternoon.