MetLife plunges 12% in year’s first week, pressuring CEO

(Bloomberg) — MetLife Inc. has plunged 12 percent in the first week of the year, leading a slump in insurers as a decline in broader equity markets squeeze results from retirement operations, and lower bond yields limit income from the fixed- income portfolio.

MetLife, the largest U.S. life insurer, has posted the second-biggest slide this year in the 88-company Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index, beating only Affiliated Managers Group Inc. Rival insurers Prudential Financial Inc. and Lincoln National Corp. have each dropped more than 9 percent since Dec. 31.