Sector movers: Defensives pace gains amid heightened uncertainty
Defensive issues paced gains in the stock market on Tuesday amid heightened uncertainty even as government bond yields climbed sharply.
"It's been another choppy day in financial markets with Europe ending a mixed bag and US indices all in the red but to varying degrees," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.
"The markets are very indicative of the uncertainty that we continue to see from Ukraine/Russia negotiations to sanctions, interest rates, recession warnings, lockdowns etc. There's no end to the uncertainty, which makes the resilience we're seeing in stock markets all the more impressive."
Dragging on market sentiment was news that Brussels was aiming to throw a raft of new sanctions on Moscow over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
In total, bilateral trade flows worth $20bn annually were expected to be targeted, including imports of Russian coal, although crude oil and natural gas were expected to remain beyond the scope of the sanctions package.
Acting as a backdrop, the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note was jumping 15 basis points to 2.555%, while that on similarly-dated Gilts was up by 11 points to 1.657%.
Top performing sectors so far today
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 6,625.05 +3.14%
Electricity 11,262.81 +2.92%
Investment Banking and Brokerage Services 13,446.43 +2.06%
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 20,984.36 +2.05%
Real Estate Investment Trusts 3,391.17 +1.85%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 2,642.16 -3.18%
Industrial Transportation 3,612.89 -2.47%
Construction & Materials 6,681.08 -2.31%
Precious Metals and Mining 11,016.03 -1.86%
Medical Equipment and Services 8,649.00 -1.38%