Sector movers: Electricity, Personal Goods names pace losses

Interest rate-sensitive Electricity names were again a major drag on the stock market on Tuesday as longer-term government bond yields on either side of the Atlantic continued to get pushed higher.

That was especially true in the States. where the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note climbed a further 12 basis points to 4.804%, a level last seen in 2007.

Hawkish remarks from some top U.S. central bank officials overnight and stronger-than-expected figures for job openings were part of the explanation.

But there was also talk in markets of investors starting to require a so-called 'term premium' for investing in longer-dated debt.

Selling in U.S. Treasuries fed into strength in the Greenback although weakness was limited by a warning out of Japan's ministry of finance against undue weakness in its currency.

Even so, miners also took a hit on Tuesday as commodity prices were dragged lower a bit.

Finally, Burberry weighed on the personal goods space as analysts at UBS cut their estimates for the European Luxury goods sector on the back of their recent trip to China and the risk of slowing sales among Chinese nationals.

In the same research note sent to clients, UBS also downgraded Burberry shares to sell.

Top performing sectors so far today

Personal Care, Drug and Grocery Stores 4,107.77 +0.21%

Banks 3,692.33 +0.12%

Beverages 23,504.13 +0.11%

Media 10,126.32 +0.11%

Alternative Energy 0.00 0.00%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Personal Goods 25,639.55 -3.10%

Leisure Goods 24,728.66 -2.83%

Automobiles & Parts 1,540.95 -2.39%

Electricity 9,048.08 -2.33%

Industrial Metals & Mining 6,368.11 -2.32%