Financial Markets and Economic Potpourri December 26, 2008
Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
Dec 26, 2008 - 05:38 AM

By: Mike_Shedlock

The barrage of noteworthy economic news continues unabated. I took a lot of time off posting Christmas Eve and Christmas. Here are a few headline news reports of interest from the past couple days that have been stacking up.

MetLife Drops as Commercial Mortgage Defaults Loom

MetLife Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., the largest U.S. life insurers, declined in New York trading on concern that losses on commercial mortgages will surge as the recession deepens. No. 1 MetLife dropped $4.53, or 12 percent, to $32.88 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Prudential, based in Newark, New Jersey, fell $2.99, or 9.9 percent to $26.35. Lincoln National Corp. declined 13 percent.

Life insurers have cut jobs, curtailed stock buybacks and reduced dividends as losses on stocks, asset-backed securities and corporate debt deplete capital. The industry, which puts about 10 percent of its invested assets in commercial mortgages, may see losses rise to the highest levels since the early 1990s, according to Randy Binner, a life insurance industry analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc.

Commercial mortgage defaults are “certainly on the forefront of the radar screen,â€