Market Currents

• Monday, December 7, 2009

• 08:34 AM MetLife (MET): sees Q4 EPS of $0.90-0.95 vs. consensus of $0.91. Sees 2010 EPS of $4.00-4.40 vs. consensus of $4.11. Shares +1.8% premarket. (PR) 1 Comment

• Tuesday, November 17, 2009

• 15:51 PM Despite a lack of fallout so far, life insurers led by MetLife (MET +0.6%) and Prudential (PRU +2.1%) may lose near $23B on commercial real estate in the next two years, Fitch says. The insurers held more than $450B in commercial loans and MBS at the end of 2008. 1 Comment

• Thursday, October 29, 2009

• 16:14 PM MetLife (MET): Q3 EPS of $0.87 in-line. Revenue of $12.4B (-1%) vs. $12.3B. Shares -1.7% AH. (PR) Comment!
• 00:10 AM Notable post-market earnings: AB, BMC, BYI, CLF, DTE, ELY, GNW, HTZ, IM, KLAC, LVS, MET, MFE, MHK, MTW, MXIM, PKI, POM, RGC, RNWK, SBAC, SPF, STAR, SWN, VAR Comment!

• Monday, August 24, 2009

• 14:15 PM Variable annuity sales dropped 24% in Q2, the fifth straight quarterly decline, as weakened insurers back off the products. Bailout recipients ING (ING +3%), AIG (AIG +3.7%) and Hartford Financial (HIG +4.1%) reported declines of more than 50%, while MetLife (MET +0.7%) increased variable-annuity sales by 27%. Comment!

• Thursday, August 13, 2009

• 08:27 AM New AIG (AIG) CEO Robert Benmosche, who previously served as MetLife's (MET) chairman and CEO, is still a MetLife shareholder, which could spell trouble for talks about a potential deal to sell AIG's Alico unit to MetLife. Comment!

• Thursday, July 30, 2009

• 16:20 PM MetLife (MET): Q2 EPS of $0.88 beats by $0.20. Revenue of $8.4B (+4%) vs. $11.7B. Shares -0.2% AH. (PR) Comment!
• 00:10 AM Notable earnings after Thursday's close: ARBA, ARIA, ARRS, BMRN, CPT, CYH, DIS, DRYS, DTE, ESLR, EXEL, FSLR, GERN, GNW, HLIT, HLTH, IM, LVS, MET, MHK, MWW, PBI, PDLI, PKI, SGY, SLW, SWN, SYNA, VPRT, VSEA, WRI, YRCW Comment!

• Wednesday, July 15, 2009

• 08:55 AM MetLife (MET) plans to combine some of its U.S. businesses into a single division in an effort to reach more customers and boost growth. Comment!

• Thursday, July 9, 2009

• 07:15 AM AIG (AIG) is in preliminary talks to sell key business Alico to rival MetLife (MET), potentially bringing in as much as $15B. Talks could still fall apart, as they did earlier this year, over a disagreement on price. Comment!

• Wednesday, June 3, 2009

• 14:50 PM MetLife (MET) and Ameriprise Financial (AMP) are leading at least $12.2B in bond sales today as companies take advantage of the lowest borrowing costs in almost nine months, and a sudden and voracious appetite for corporate debt. Comment!

• Thursday, May 7, 2009

• 17:43 PM Here's a bank by bank list of capital buffer shortfall, or lack thereof (source):
  American Express (AXP): $0
  Bank of America (BAC): $33.9B
  BB&T (BBT): $0
  Bank of New York Mellon (BK): $0
  Capital One (COF): $0
  Citigroup (C): $5.5B
  Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB): $1.1B
  GMAC: $11.5B
  Goldman Sachs (GS): $0
  JPMorgan (JPM): $0
  KeyCorp (KEY): $1.8B
  MetLife (MET): $0
  Morgan Stanley (MS): $1.8B
  PNC Financial (PNC): $0.6B
  Regions Financial (RF): $2.5B
  State Street (STT): $0
  SunTrust Banks (STI): $2.2B
  U.S. Bancorp (USB): $0
  Wells Fargo (WFC): $13.7B 4 Comments
• 07:37 AM Counting down to stress test results, at least six firms likely won't need more capital: JPMorgan (JPM), Goldman (GS), MetLife (MET), AmEx (AXP), Bank of New York Mellon (BK) and Capital One Financial (COF). Premarket: JPM +2.5%, GS +1.0%, MET +2.0%, AXP +3.0%, BK +3.4%, COF +10.5%. Comment!

• Thursday, April 30, 2009

• 18:22 PM MetLife (MET): Q1 EPS of $0.20 misses by $0.14. Revenue of $10.22B (-12.%) vs. $11.93B. Net realized investment losses of $618M. Shares -4% AH. (PR) Comment!
• 15:10 PM Notable earnings after Thursday's close: ACS, ARBA, BGC, BMRN, CPT, CQB, DLB, ESLR, FISV, FR, HIG, IDTI, IM, MET, MFE, MTW, MXIM, PKI, QLGC, RSG, TEG, VSEA, XRAY
    Comment!
• 00:10 AM Notable earnings after Thursday's close: ACS, ARBA, BGC, BMRN, CPT, CQB, DLB, ESLR, FISV, FR, HIG, IDTI, IM, MET, MFE, MTW, MXIM, PKI, QLGC, RSG, TEG, VSEA, XRAY
    Comment!