Financials Little Changed Amid Deal Activity -- Financials Roundup

Banks, lenders and other financial companies were more or less flat amid deal activity.

Property and general insurer Hartford Financial Services agreed to pay $1.45 billion to health insurer Aetna for a unit that provides life-, disability-income and other insurance products to employers' benefits programs in the U.S.

The insurer's chief executive said the acquisition would make it one of the top two players in the group benefits market. Richard Turnill, global chief investment strategist for money manager BlackRock, warned that U.S. corporate bonds were an unwise investment given how highly priced they were in comparison with safer Treasurys.

"Credit has little further price upside in the case of ongoing economic growth and strong equity markets, but plenty of downside risk in a growth slowdown and equity market sell-off," warned Mr. Turnill.

A federal jury in Brooklyn found Mark Johnson, a former high-ranking HSBC Holdings executive, guilty on charges that he misused information about a client's $3.5 billion currency trade to make millions of dollars for the bank.

-Rob Curran, rob.curran@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 23, 2017 16:23 ET (20:23 GMT)