The Dow Jones Utility Average slipped less than 0.1% Thursday, to snap a 10-session win streak, the longest such streak since October 2006. The index was up as much as 0.9% earlier in the session, which set it up for the longest win streak (11 sessions) since July 1992, but some late-day weakness turned the index lower. The utilities sector tends to outperform the broader market in the late stages of a business cycle and in a recession, given the defensive nature of the sector, and because falling Treasury yields tend to make the relatively high dividend yields of utilities stocks more attractive. The implied dividend yield of the Dow utilities (DJU) is 3.32%, while the implied yield for the Dow Jones Industrial Average is 2.04%. Strangely, the DJU's win streak started the day after the Federal Reserve raised its fed funds target range by 25 basis points to 1.75% to 2.00%; that's because the yield on the 10-year Treasury note has declined by 13 basis points since the Fed hiked rates. On Thursday, the yield edged up 7.1 basis points to 2.847%. The DJU has gained 2.4% this month, while the Dow industrials has slipped 0.8%.