Utilities tumble with yields rising after stronger than expected U.S. jobs report

Utility stocks XLU are Friday's worst performing S&P sector, -2.8%, as investors sell fixed income vehicles with yields rising after much stronger than expected U.S. non-farm payrolls data raised fears that the Federal Reserve could keep hiking interest rates.

The U.S. economy added 517K new jobs in January, crushing expectations and marking the biggest increase in six months, while the unemployment rate slid to a 54-year low of 3.4%.

All 30 members of the S&P 500 Utilities Index are trading lower, including Eversource Energy ES -3.8%, Evergy EVRG -3.7%, Alliant Energy LNT -3.6%, Exelon EXC -3.5%, FirstEnergy FE -3.5%, Pinnacle West PNW -3.4%, Dominion Energy D -3.3%, Entergy ETR -3.2%, Sempra SRE -3.2%, American Electric Power AEP -3.1%.

FirstEnergy FE said Thursday it agreed to sell an additional 30% stake in its FirstEnergy Transmission business for $3.5B.