The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Starr International Co. Inc.'s request for a review of the appeals court ruling that it lacked the standing to sue the U.S. government over the bailout of American International Group Inc., Bloomberg News reported.

Property Claim Services' initial loss estimate for the winter storm that impacted U.S. East Coast at the beginning of March is $1.36 billion, Trading Risk reported, citing sources.

United Insurance Holdings Corp. launched a $100 million catastrophe bond, Armor Re II Ltd. series 2018-1, Artemis reported. The deal will protect four United Holdings subsidiaries from U.S. named storm, earthquakes and other perils for a two-year risk period.

A group of public North American property and casualty insurers posted an aggregate underwriting loss in 2017, the first time in six years, Fitch Ratings said in a report. GAAP financial results for 51 North American P&C insurers indicate that the group's combined ratio increased by 5.1 points to 102.0% in 2017, compared to 96.2% in 2016. Twenty-six companies in the group reported a calendar-year combined ratio above 100% in 2017, compared with 11 companies with an underwriting loss in 2016.

XL Group Ltd was one of half a dozen potential acquisition targets that Axa was weighing, and was relatively cheaper compared to other rival companies that had more expensive valuations, Axa CEO Thomas Buberl said in an interview with the Financial Times. France-based Axa has agreed to acquire XL Group for a total cash consideration of $15.3 billion.

1347 Property Insurance Holdings Inc. reported fourth-quarter 2017 net income of $1.4 million, or 23 cents per share, compared with $1.6 million, or 27 cents per share, in the prior-year period.

Capital offerings: Allstate Corp. filed a preliminary prospectus supplement for the sale of an undisclosed amount of floating rate senior notes due 2021 and 2023.

AIG closed its sale of approximately $2.5 billion in notes and debentures.

The life and health industries want to speed up the process of setting long-term care rate increases on a nationwide basis, but some state regulators are reluctant to do so. Industry representatives at a National Association of Insurance Commissioners conference in Milwaukee pressed state regulators to ratchet up the premium rate approval process.

In people news, Peter Mullen, who was recently reported to be departing as CEO of Aon Captive and Insurance Management, is rejoining Artex Risk Solutions in March 2019 as CEO-elect, the Insurance Journal reported. Artex Risk Solutions is a unit of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Featured news

Novartis sells consumer stake to GSK for $13B; WHO faces challenge on hepatitis: GlaxoSmithKline agreed to buy Novartis' stake in their consumer health joint venture; World Health Organization's targets for extinguishing hepatitis B virus are unlikely to be achieved unless screening become more accessible, according to a report.

Financial news in other parts of the world

Asia-Pacific: Goldman Sachs in Indian M&A talks; Australian wealth manager files for IPO

Europe: Commerzbank predicts fall in revenue; Deutsche Bank looks to replace CEO

Middle East & Africa: Abraaj mulls unit stake sale; Hapoalim Q4'17 profit up; Bank of Ghana cuts rate

The day ahead

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

In Asia, the Hang Seng rose 0.79% to 30,790.83, while the Nikkei 225 climbed 2.65% to 21,317.32.

In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 gained 1.93% to 7,021.46 and the Euronext 100 rose 1.33% to 1,004.44.

On the macro front

The Redbook, the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller HPI, the consumer confidence report, the Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index and the State Street Investor Confidence Index are due out today.

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