Sector movers: Cyclicals pace gains after stronger-than-expected US jobs data

Autos&Parts, Industrial Transportation and Construction stocks paced gains in the last session of what turned out to be a slightly positive week for the FTSE 350.

Boosting investor sentiment was a stronger-than-expected reading for non-farm payrolls in the US for the month of June to the tune of 372,000.

For many economists that showed that talk of an impending recession had been a bit hyped-up.

And financial markets appeared to agree - to a certain extent.

According to the CME's Fed Watch tool, Fed funds traders moved to price in a 45 chance of a 100 basis point interest rate hike by the US central bank at their 26-27 July meeting.

Furthermore, the odds of a 75bp hike in September were put at 30.0%.

Nonetheless, according to Mickey Levy at Berenberg Capital Markets, the 315,000 drop seen in the Household survey of employment, which was contained in the same report as the payrolls figure

For his part, in their weekly 'Flow Show' report, BofA Securities' strategists Michael Hartnett and Myung Jee-Jung forecast a hiatus in the bear market over the summer, predicting that the S&P 500 would trade in a wide range between 3,800-4,200 points.

However, in their opinion the 'Big Low' had yet to be reached.

"Bear markets end with a recession or an event that causes Fed to reverse policy; we say bear market in summer hiatus (SPX 3800-4200), and bear ain't over and Big Low has yet to be reached."

Top performing sectors so far today

Automobiles & Parts 1,708.77 +5.91%

Industrial Transportation 2,950.29 +2.36%

Construction & Materials 6,315.98 +2.27%

General Industrials 6,018.63 +0.99%

Chemicals 12,013.14 +0.95%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Banks 3,175.14 -1.20%

Personal Goods 26,808.22 -0.65%

Electricity 10,480.01 -0.64%

Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,879.34 -0.56%

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 22,005.60 -0.48%