Stocks were beaten down yesterday as Wall Street was hit by more bad news on inflation, which could provoke the Federal Reserve to boost interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial index ended down 136.14 points, or 1.26 per cent, at 10,655.15 after sliding 180 points on Thursday.

For the week, the blue-chip index was down 255 points after sliding 300 points in the earlier week. But in the broader market, advancing issues led declines by a small margin on moderate volume of 725 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

In the inflation-sensitive bond market, the 30-year US Treasury bond was off 20/32 with the yield jumping to 6.12 per cent from 6.08 per cent on Thursday.