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House GOP urges individual mandate repeal in tax bill; Enstar may buy Novae book

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House GOP urges individual mandate repeal in tax bill; Enstar may buy Novae book

Nearly 70 House Republicans sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to include the repeal of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate in the final version of the tax bill, the Washington Examiner reported. The Senate version of the bill includes the repeal of the individual mandate, while the House version does not.

Enstar Group Ltd. is said to be the frontrunner to reinsure-to-close Novae Group Plc's $1.1 billion legacy book following exclusive talks with AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd., The Insurance Insider reported. A deal could be announced later this week. Enstar was competing with a consortium of R&Q and Axa for Novae's book, consisting of all businesses that it wrote before Jan. 1, 2016.

The existing claims for the now-insolvent Guarantee Insurance Co. are now being handled by the American Guaranty Fund Group, Business Insurance reported, citing an interview with the latter's COO, Tom Streukens. A Florida judge in late November ordered Guarantee Insurance into liquidation. The American Guaranty Fund Group is working with Florida regulators to take up Guarantee's claims.

Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide estimates global insured average annual losses of $78.7 billion for 2017. The 1% aggregate exceedance probability insured loss, or the 100-year return period loss, from catastrophes worldwide is nearly $250 billion in 2017, the Verisk Analytics Inc. company said in its 2017 Global Modeled Catastrophe Losses report.

Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Co. will stop new sales of its standalone long-term care insurance product effective June 15, 2018, Investment Executive reported, citing a company spokesman. Desjardins' decision follows Manulife Financial Corp.'s announcement that it would discontinue new sales of LTC insurance in Canada effective Nov. 30.

Allstate Corp. entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement with Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC to purchase $300 million of its outstanding common stock.

Auto-Owners Insurance Co. Chairman and CEO Jeff Harrold is retiring effective Dec. 31. Jeffrey Tagsold, the company's president and COO, will succeed Harrold as chairman and CEO on Jan. 1, 2018.

Financial news in other parts of the world

Asia-Pacific: Zurich to buy ANZ's life insurance biz; Taiwan denies forex intervention

Europe: Zurich buying ANZ's life insurance biz; Spain sells 7% stake in Bankia

Middle East & Africa: Iran vows to pop up banks; Fitch downgrades Oman

Latin America: Proposed bankruptcy law to give Brazil banks more power; S&P cuts Colombia

The day ahead

Early morning futures indicators pointed to a mixed opening for the U.S. market.

In Asia, the Hang Seng dropped 0.59% to 28,793.88, while the Nikkei 225 slid 0.32% to 22,866.17.

In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 gained 0.16% to 7,465.70 and the Euronext 100 climbed 0.20% to 1,046.20.

On the macro front

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index, the PPI-FD report, the Redbook, and the Treasury budget are due out today.