Merry May? No Way!

The Financial Services sector slipped 2.47%. Six of the seven Financial Services stocks ended in the minus column. American Express bucked the trend and managed a 3.66% advance to $42.51.

The dozen Reinsurers lost 4.27%. But the group attracted attention with two advancing issues. These were Transatlantic Holding and Arch Capital Group Ltd. Transatlantic moved up 3.19% to $87.05. Arch Capital edged ahead 1.78% to $29.70.

Forty-two Property & Casualty stocks were down 4.24%, with 13 winners and 29 losers. There were a number of conspicuous losers, but just one double-digit winner. That was Meadowbrook, which came to life with 37.50% jump to $3.25.

Twenty-seven Life & Health stocks were almost, but not entirely, bereft of good news. There were 6 advances and 21 declines. The group was off a hefty 6.68%. Recent IPO Principal Financial Group was best in the L&H sector with a 9.35% surge to $30.40.

The only other L&H stock to generate a mentionable gain was AFLAC. The stock AFL gained 7.56% to $32.16. The company is the largest provider of supplemental health coverages, here in the USA and in Japan. The company has scooped the rest of the industry with a duck that parades around quacking “AFLAC!—AFLAC!—AFLAC-C-C!”

As a matter of policy, I do not recommend the purchase or sale of stocks. But I do urge you find the AFLAC duck on your TV screen. It will brighten your day!

Reproduced from National Underwriter Life & Health/Financial Services Edition, July 1, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.