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Dorian gaining strength; Calif. earthquake insurance uptake; Zurich divestiture

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Dorian gaining strength; Calif. earthquake insurance uptake; Zurich divestiture

Hurricane Dorian is expected to become a major hurricane later today and is likely to remain an "extremely dangerous" hurricane while it moves near the northwestern Bahamas and approaches the Florida peninsula through the weekend, the National Hurricane Center said. Dorian has maximum sustained winds near 105 mph with higher gusts, and is expected to bring stronger maximum winds of about 130 mph within the next two days.

CoreLogic said 668,052 single-family and multifamily homes along the east coast of Florida with a reconstruction cost value of approximately $144.6 billion are at potential risk of storm surge damage from Dorian, based on a projected Category 3 status at landfall. Also, property insurers have stopped accepting new business in Florida ahead of Dorian's arrival, The Insurance Insider reported.

The California Earthquake Authority said it gained 23,861 earthquake insurance policies in July, the second-largest monthly net increase in its 23-year history, following the magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 earthquakes, and a number of aftershocks, that struck on unnamed faults near the town of Ridgecrest. The authority noted that it gained 6,289 policies for the first half.

Apollo Global Management LLC and Athene Holding Ltd. agreed to buy PK AirFinance SA, an aviation lending business, from GE Capital Aviation Services Inc. Apollo will acquire the PK AirFinance aircraft lending platform and Athene will acquire PK AirFinance's existing portfolio of loans.

Zurich Insurance Group AG is considering a divestiture of its Chicago-domiciled U.S. life insurance business, Zurich American Life Insurance Co., The Insurance Insider reported. Market sources said the subsidiary could be valued at approximately $500 million, according to the report. Barclays is an adviser for the sale process.

Sirius International Insurance Group Ltd. announced a number of business segment leaders, including Monica Cramér Manhem as president of global reinsurance and Warren Trace as president of North America reinsurance and deputy chief underwriting officer for the Americas.

The New Hampshire Insurance Department signed off on a 9.6% decrease in workers' compensation insurance loss costs for 2020 as filed by the National Council on Compensation Insurance. The loss cost is the portion of an employer's insurance premium that pays claims costs for work-related injuries.

Global Risk Partners Ltd. is looking at options for partial sale and reinvestment as private equity backer Penta Capital nears the end of its traditional investment period, Insurance Age reported.

Dajia Insurance Group established four subsidiaries to take over parts of Anbang Insurance Group Co. Ltd.'s businesses, Caixin reported. Dajia's newly formed units will hold Anbang's life insurance, property and casualty insurance, annuity insurance and asset management businesses.

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Buyer won't keep US surety target Intact following C$1B acquisition: Canada's Intact Financial plans to accelerate the growth of a U.S. surety business that was already set to nearly double in size as part of a recently announced transaction.

ECB's bond buying bazooka blunted by shortage of bonds as German debt shrinks: The scale of the European Central Bank's next bout of quantitative easing could be limited to less than half of its previous €2.6 trillion program by a lack of German debt, and limits on the percentage of a country's debt the central bank can hold.

In other parts of the world

Asia-Pacific: SBI unit seeks 80B rupees in IPO; Singapore opens digital bank applications

Europe: BNP eyes Deutsche's equity derivatives; UBS eyes 3 CEO candidates; Amigo's woes

Middle East & Africa: Equity Group mulls fintech unit's fate; 2 Nigerian banks to merge

The day ahead

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

In Asia, the Hang Seng inched up 0.08% to 25,724.73, and the Nikkei 225 rose 1.19% to 20,704.37.

In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.65% to 7,231.22, and the Euronext 100 was up 0.97% to 1,067.18.

Click here to read about today's financial markets, setting out the factors driving stocks, bonds and currencies around the world ahead of the New York open.

On the macro front

The personal income and outlays report, the Chicago PMI, the consumer sentiment report, the farm prices report and the Baker-Hughes Rig Count report are due out today.

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