U.S. insurers gain as Treasury yields climb on retail sales data

Fednat Holding Co

17/05/2022 18:07

** Shares of U.S. insurance companies gain, tracking a rise
in Treasury yields as strong retails sales data calms fears of
an approaching recession  US/ 
    ** Major insurers MetLife Inc  MET.N , American
International Group Inc  AIG.N , Travelers Companies Inc  TRV.N 
and Prudential Financial Inc  PRU.N  up between 0.79% and 2.51%
    ** Mid- and small-cap insurers Allsate Corp  ALL.N , Fednat
Holding Co  FNHC.O , Brighthouse Financial Inc  BHF.O  and
Heritage Insurance Holdings Inc  HRTG.N  gain between 0.65% and
14.17%
    ** Yields on benchmark 10-year notes  US10YT=RR  were last
at 2.9696%, up 9.1 basis points
    ** Wall Streets main indexes also gained on Tuesday, rising
on the back of strong retail sales data and a surge in shares of
banks  .N 
    ** Insurers and banks tend to benefit from rising yields as
higher interest rates typically boosts their profitability
    ** Major U.S. banks also gain  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2X931T
    ** YTD, the S&P 500 Insurance index  .SPXIN  has fallen 0.1%
vs a 15.9% slump in the broader S&P 500  .SPX 

 (Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru)
 ((sohini.podder@thomsonreuters.com))