The Dow (INDEX: ^DJI) is surging again today on another strong jobs report, but some names are doing even better than others.

Once again, cyclicals continue to outperform. Financials such as Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), materials producers such as Alcoa (NYSE: AA), capital goods manufacturers such as Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), and energy companies such as Chevron (NYSE: CVX) were among the top performers in the Dow recently.

Unemployment has been ever-so-slowly inching downward in recent months, and investors in economically sensitive industries are keen to find out how the jobs market is faring. Yesterday we found out that unemployment benefits claims declined slightly in the first month of 2012. Today we found out that the economy added 243,000 jobs in January, driving the unemployment rate down to 8.3%

As the economy slowly recovers, investors are increasingly placing their bets on cyclical sectors such as materials, financials, capital goods, and consumer discretionary stocks, while eschewing more stable "defensive" sectors such as consumer staples, telcom, and utilities:

Sector

Average Return (year to date)

Materials 11.7%
IT 10.7%
Financials 8.9%
Industrials 8.3%
Health care 7.9%
Consumer discretionary 7.7%
Energy 3.8%
Consumer staples (0.1%)
Telcom (2.9%)
Utilities (3.0%)

Source: S&P Capital IQ.

An individual jobs report won't make or break cyclicals, but if we continue to see strong employment and manufacturing numbers over the coming months, it's likely they'll continue beating the Dow. If not, they could swing back in the other direction -- hard.

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