Hurricane Harvey may cost US insurance $20bn

Insurance stocks were mostly lower Monday, as investors awaited the initial estimates of losses from hurricane Harvey, which devastated Texas over the weekend.

“While it is early days and Harvey is expected to bring even more rain and flooding for another week, our best guess at this point is Harvey could result in $10-$20bn of industry insured losses making it one of the top 10 most costly hurricanes to hit the U.S.,” J.P. Morgan analyst Sarah DeWitt wrote in a Monday note.

CreditSights analysts said the most vulnerable lines of business include allied lines, commercial and private auto, commercial multiple peril, homeowners and farm owners multiple peril, crop mulitple peril, private crop, fire, flood and inland marine.

Among the companies that are most exposed to the region, Allstate Corp. shares fell 1.7%, Progressive Corp. shares were down 2.5%, Chubb Ltd. fell 1.6%, CNA Financial Corp. was down 0.5% and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. was down 2%. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. fell 1.8% and Everest Re Group Ltd. fell 2.5%. Dow Jones Industrial Average component Travelers Cos. Inc. fell 3%, to shave about 20 points off the price-weighted index.