Sector movers: Cyclicals to the fore as Fed chief adopts forceful tone

Cyclicals paced gains at the end of the week after Federal Reserve chief, Jerome Powell, confirmed that investors could expect a first interest rate cut for this cycle when rate-setters in the US next met.

In forceful language, Powell said that the monetary authority was neither seeking nor would welcome a further cooling in the jobs market.

For traders, those words appeared to indicated that a 50 basis point cut wasn't off the table should the next monthly jobs report come in weak.

Stocks rose on the back of those headlines as did cable.

Weakness in the US dollar index, which was at its weakest since the end of 2023 and just above key technical support, albeit oversold, pushed commodity prices higher.

By 1810 BST the Bloomberg commodity index was up by 1.32% to 229.30 amid gains in oil, copper and precious metals' prices.

Top performing sectors so far today

Industrial Transportation 3,967.96 +2.12%

Personal Goods 11,855.96 +1.50%

Chemicals 8,288.22 +1.42%

Automobiles & Parts 1,070.77 +1.29%

Precious Metals and Mining 10,430.77 +1.23%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Medical Equipment and Services 12,093.97 -0.59%

Aerospace and Defence 11,373.37 -0.51%

Software & Computer Services 2,459.63 -0.45%

Non-life Insurance 3,900.35 -0.35%

Media 12,328.35 -0.21%