By Carlos Pallordet

Sept 29 - (The Insurer) - The North American insurance composite compiled by Stonybrook Capital and Weild & Co climbed 0.7% last week, boosted by a 3.3% gain for the reinsurer sub-group.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 fell 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the week 0.1% lower.

Meanwhile, the small-cap Russell 2000 index shed 0.6%.

Stonybrook and Weild noted that with the U.S. government set to run out of spending authority on September 30, a shutdown appears likely. House Republicans passed a stopgap funding bill but the Senate’s agreement faces a tougher path, requiring 60 votes but with only 53 seats in Republican hands and no quick compromise in sight.

“Congress has yet to pass any full-year appropriations bills, so a continuing resolution will only ‘kick the can down the road’ as this stopgap measure can’t address deficits," Stonybrook and Weild said.

The investment banks also highlighted stronger-than-expected economic growth and consumer spending, with second-quarter GDP revised up to 3.8% annualised – well above the 3.3% consensus forecast.

“Consumer spending in particular came in above the consensus estimates of 1.7% at 2.5%. Consumer spending supports 70% of the U.S. economy,” the investment banks said.

In the North American insurance composite, advancers led decliners by 63 to 48, with eight of the 12 industry groups advancing in the week.

The reinsurer sub-group was last week's top performer, with all six of its constituents advancing.

Shares in leader Everest Group rose 4.1% while RenaissanceRe was up 3.1%.

Conduit Holdings led the gains in the group with an 8.6% weekly rise.

SiriusPoint and Greenlight Capital Re advanced 3.6% and 0.4%, respectively.

The group of global P&C insurers was the week's second-best performer.

Chubb was the standout performer in the cohort, with its shares climbing 2.5% over the week.

Berkshire Hathaway and AIG both ended the week 1.3% higher.

Meanwhile, the group of standard commercial insurers increased by 1.2%.

Old Republic, Selective and Hanover Insurance Group recorded the largest rises in the cohort, with gains of 5.3%, 3.1% and 2.6%, respectively.

Among the larger-cap companies, CNA Financial rose 2.0% while The Hartford increased by 1.6%.

Shares in Travelers – the largest company in the cohort by market capitalisation – edged up by 0.3% while Cincinnati Financial added 0.5%.

Among global brokers, Marsh McLennan and Aon rose 1.4%, in line with the cohort’s average.

Meanwhile, shares in Arthur J Gallagher and WTW were both up by 1.5%.

The two worst-performing groups in the composite were micro cap insurers, down 4.6%, and insurance service providers, down 2.7%.

The Stonybrook–Weild North American Insurance composite is up 5.9% year-to-date.

In this article, we have included a selection of industry comp tables published in full by Stonybrook and Weild & Co in their weekly update.