I am on sabbatical from DU for the holidays.. but I think I know why insurance companies stock rose

[Peacetrain]

ANNUITIES.. including wellpoint..

The retirement monies are coming back into the stock market.. BIG TIME.. they are what was sitting on the sidelines.

Annuities are insurance retirement products.. TIAA CREF is the teachers annuity. Wellpoint.. John
Hancock on and on and on..

Gee this place is addictive.. I still had to check on it.. ROFL..

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. Occam's razor has never been duller

[Peacetrain]

3. Well if you subscribe to the theory..then I am correct..its the simplest explanation

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. Insurance company stocks are up because the public option was going to kill the insurance industry

And now there will be no public option. It's not that complicated. People were holding back for a conclusion to reduce risk, and that conclusion has been reached.

[dave29]

4. They are up for many reasons. Of course people will cherry pick the ones that suit them

1) The overall market is up
2) The PO is dead (at least for now), and that leads to the perception that the insurance companies "won" even though the truth is they are about to face much steeper regulation. They also won a delay in the 70 billion in taxes that are going to be levied moving forward. This has helped their rally. On balance, I am noticing also, executives selling on this uptick.
3) Annuities

People need to remember that the point of this regulation was never to "kill" the insurance companies -- not even with a PO. So waiting for the stocks to tank may be a fruitless endeavor. Not to mention there are probably millions upon millions of people who have stock in these companies that do not even realize it (mutual funds/401k plans) -- so "wishing" these stocks down is not really a positive, unless you are completely heartless.

[cherokeeprogressive]

5. Good One