Stocks Manage Gains Across the Board

With mortgage bonds showing some early morning progress, stock traders began to look at economic data as it became available.  The Producers price index showed extremely low levels of inflation which can be the friend of both stocks and bonds,  A morning clunker was the empire state manufacturing index which fell to 1.43 disappointed traders.  On the good side the Home Builders Association index increased to 44 which represented the first increase this year.  All three major exchanges showed gains today as the Dow closed up 60 points.