The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed a 1.84% rate increase for payments to insurers for offering private Medicare plans for the 2019 plan year. Insurers have until March 5 to comment on the proposed rates. CMS expects to finalize the rate by April 2.
Global insured losses from natural catastrophes in 2017 are expected to exceed $140 billion and economic losses could surpass $300 billion, according to a JLT Re report.
Earnings and call updates
Click here to read a summary of earnings reported Feb. 1 by select insurance companies covered by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Speaking on an earnings call, XL Group Ltd CEO Mike McGavick is confident that the company will deliver solid results going forward using lessons learned in 2017.
Turning to M&A
Cottonwood Title Insurance Agency Inc., a Utah-based title insurance company, acquired Founders Title Co. and Founders Title Co. of Davis.
Led by Armour Group Ltd, a group of investors acquired Elite Insurance Co. Ltd. and its affiliate Elite Business Development Ltd.
Incenter LLC, a provider of trading, advisory and fulfillment services for lenders and specialty finance companies, closed its acquisition of Agents National Title Insurance Co., a Columbia, Mo.-based provider of residential and commercial title insurance services.
Sompo International Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, completed the 100% transfer of the Sompo America companies to Sompo International and has integrated Sompo America's business operations and staff into the Sompo International Insurance platform.
The maturity of the $63 million Resilience Re Ltd. series 1711A private catastrophe bond
Featured news
Merck & Co., AstraZeneca report earnings; Insys facing new lawsuit: AstraZeneca and Merck & Co. reported year-over-year increases in earnings; and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against INSYS Therapeutics for illegally marketing its opioid painkiller Subsys.
Financial news in other parts of the world
Asia-Pacific: India to merge, list 3 insurers; Alibaba to buy 33% stake in Ant Financial
Europe: Deutsche Bank FY'17 loss narrows; Danske Bank launches 10B kroner buyback
Middle East & Africa: IDB to sell Banque Zitouna stake; Standard Bank gets new CEO in Malawi
Latin America: BBVA Bancomer, Banco de Chile, Cielo post higher Q4 profits
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng decreased 0.12% to 32,601.78, and the Nikkei 225 declined 0.90% to 23,274.53.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 was down 0.34% to 7,464.61, and the Euronext 100 was down 1.04% to 1,048.25.
On the macro front
The employment situation report, the consumer sentiment report, the factor orders report and the Baker-Hughes Rig Count report are due out today.
