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Monday, Sept. 8
Energy stocks rise with broad market, oil (9:39 am ET)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Energy stocks rose with the broad market in early action on Monday, as oil price rose on the approach of Hurricane Ike to the Gulf of Mexico. Oil futures rose $1.84 to $108.07. The Amex Oil Index (XOI: news, chart, profile) rose 2% to 1,246. The Amex Natural Gas Index (XNG: news, chart, profile) rose 1.5% to 570. ConocoPhillips (COP: news, chart, profile) rose 1.9% to $76.88 after it said it would pay up to $8 billion for a half-share in the coal seam gas assets of Australia's Origin Energy Ltd.
Huntsman, Hexion go to court over scuttled merger(9:35 am ET)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Huntsman (HUN: news, chart, profile) shares fell 13 cents to $12.89 as a legal fight over its scuttled merger with Hexion Chemical moved to a Delaware court. Hexion said Monday that neither a $500 million of financing reflected in a prior proposal, nor the $416 million in a fresh financing proposal on Monday "is remotely sufficient to result in the combined company being solvent." Hexion's board said it will continue to study the proposal.
Swiss Re to focus on margins in tough insurance market(2:45 am ET)
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Reinsurance company Swiss Re (CH:001233237: news, chart, profile) cautioned Monday that the insurance industry is facing a worsening business environment and said it will focus on disciplined underwriting. The group said a combination of soft insurance markets, stock market turbulence and an active hurricane season are all having an impact on insurers. Ahead of the January 2009 renewals period Swiss Re said it will focus on preserving margins, even if it means doing less business. It added high inflation poses an additional risk to the sector. If inflation remains elevated for an extended period it could generate additional losses, reducing the industry's capital base, the firm said.
Air France-KLM August traffic rises(2:26 am ET)
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Air France-KLM (FR:003112: news, chart, profile) said Monday that the total number of passengers carried in August rose 1% to 6.77 million, while its load factor -- a measure of passengers against available seats -- fell 1.6 percentage points to 83.7%. Traffic measured in revenue per kilometer rose 2.8% compared to a year earlier. The group said the strongest growth was in the Americas and Asia, while the Caribbean and Indian Ocean network saw traffic decline.