Market Currents

• Thursday, November 5, 2009

• 07:19 AM CIGNA (CI): Q3 EPS of $1.13 beats by $0.10. Revenue of $4.52B (-6.9%) in-line. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable premarket earnings: ALD, BVF, CAH, CDE, CI, CNQ, CTL, CVS, DNR, DPS, DPTR, DTV, DYN, FTO, GNA, HK, KG, KIM, LAMR, MAC, MF, MGM, NDAQ, OCR, PCS, PXP, RRI, SE, SIRI, SLE, TDC, TWC, WEN, WW Comment!

• Tuesday, November 3, 2009

• 13:06 PM Senate probe finds U.S. health insurers (AET, CI, CVH, HUM, UNH, WLP) are spending considerably less of their premiums on medical care than official industry estimates - an average of $0.70/dollar instead of the $0.87 cited by AHIP. The report also singles out Cigna for mislabeling $5B worth of clients. Sen. Jay Rockefeller: "While health-care costs are spiraling upwards, consumers are paying more and getting less, and the health insurance industry doesn't want anyone to know what they are up to." 9 Comments

• Thursday, October 22, 2009

• 15:52 PM Health insurer stocks spike again, on news that critical health-reform swing vote Olympia Snowe says she won't support immediately creating a public insurance option. WellPoint (WLP) +1.9%; UnitedHealth (UNH) +2.6%; Aetna (AET) +1.2%; Humana (HUM) +2.1%; Cigna (CI) +2.9%. 1 Comment

• Tuesday, October 13, 2009

• 15:58 PM Health insurer shares have tanked further after the Senate Finance Committee approves the Baucus healthcare bill 14-9. Aetna (AET) down 3.3%; UnitedHealth (UNH) down 3.6%; WellPoint (WLP) down 0.5%; Humana (HUM) down 1.1%; Cigna (CI) down 3.1%. Comment!

• Thursday, October 8, 2009

• 13:37 PM Health insurer stocks are suffering today after the Senate's reform bill gets a boost from a Congressional Budget Office report saying the bill would cut the budget deficit by $81B over 10 years. Wellpoint (WLP) -7.1%, UnitedHealth (UNH) -4.7%, Aetna (AET) -5%, Humana (HUM) -5.4%, Cigna (CI) -4%. (CBO letter to Baucus, .pdf) 2 Comments

• Thursday, September 10, 2009

• 13:28 PM Stocks of healthcare insurers Cigna (CI +4.3%), HealthNet (HNT +4.2%) and Humana (HUM +3%) posting strong gains today as analysts say that Obama's speech and remarks from Congressional leaders broke no new ground and suggest that reform will be incremental. Comment!

• Thursday, July 30, 2009

• 06:42 AM CIGNA (CI): Q2 EPS of $1.14 beats by $0.18. Revenue of $4.5B (-8%) vs. $4.8B. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Thursday's open: ABC, ABX, ADP, ALU, AOC, APA, ARTG, AVP, AVY, AZN, BC, BCRX, BDX, BEN, CI, CINF, CL, CLI, CMI, CMS, CNX, COL, COV, CVC, DLR, DOW, EK, ENDP, EXPE, FAF, GT, GTI, HP, INCY, IP, IRM, K, KBR, KIM, KSU, LVLT, MA, MOT, MYL, NBL, NRG, NWL, NYX, OCR, OMX, OSK, PCZ, PH, PTEN, RDS.A, RGC, RYN, SBH, SNE, SPR, TEN, TRV, TSM, TYC, VTR, WMI, WYNN, XEL, XOM Comment!

• Thursday, April 30, 2009

• 09:04 AM Premarket losers: SQNM -77%. EROC -33%. JDSU -14%. ITRI -10%. CI -9%. BQI -7%. AU -4%. WRE -4%. GSS -4%. Comment!
• 06:53 AM CIGNA (CI): Q1 EPS of $0.69 misses by $0.22. Revenue of $4.8B (+4.5%) in-line. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Thursday's open: APA, ASH, AZN, BC, BWA, CAH, CELG, CI, CINF, CL, CLI, CMCSA, CMS, COCO, COV, CTL, D, DLR, DOW, EK, ENTG, EQT, ERIC, EXPE, FAF, GTI, HOT, HP, IP, IRM, K, KBR, KIM, KSU, LKQX, LNT, MRO, MOT, MYL, NBL, NEM, NRG, NWL, NYX, OC, OCR, OMX, OSK, PDE, PEI, PG, PTEN, RGC, RYN, SEPR, SPR, SWY, TRV, TSM, TYC, VIA.B, WMB, WPI, XEL, XOM Comment!

• Monday, February 23, 2009

• 12:09 PM Humana (HUM) -24% after the government proposes 2010 fee increases of less than 1% for Medicaid service providers, which HUM says will have a "significant adverse impact." Collateral damages: UNH -14%. AET -7%. WLP -7%. CI -9%. (PR) Comment!

• Thursday, February 5, 2009

• 07:19 AM CIGNA (CI): Q4 EPS of $0.49 beats by $0.08. Revenue of $4.8B (+6.7%) vs. $4.75B. (PR) Comment!
• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Thursday's open: ANR, BG, BKC, BPO, CAH, CBB, CI, CINF, DO, DUK, EL, ELNK, FLIR, FLO, K, KIM, MA, MCO, MF, NCR, RX, SBH, SE, SPR, UFS, WU Comment!

• Thursday, October 30, 2008

• 00:05 AM Notable earnings before Thursday's open: ABC, ABX, AIZ, ALU, AVP, AZN, BJS, BLL, CAM, CBB, CBS, CI, CL, CLI, CMC, CMS, CVS, D, EK, ENDP, EXPE, FAF, GLBL, IAR, ICE, IGT, IP, IRM, JAH, LEA, LKQX, MOT, MPS, MRO, MYL, NRG, NWL, OCR, PAG, PDE, PNX, PTEN, RDS.A, SCG, SFI, SGR, SPIL, TE, UIS, VC, WMI, WYN, XOM Comment!