Reinsurance

The impact from the Japan earthquake and tsunami may be felt by reinsurance company stockholders if companies decide to buffer their earnings with a suspension of stock buyback programs, a report from Moody’s says.

Company estimates continue to roll in for 2011 first-quarter catastrophe losses, led by London-based Amlin plc’s estimate of up to £275 million ($448.7 million at current exchange rate) in claims for the Japan and New Zealand earthquakes as well as Australian flooding.

With plenty of capital still in the pipelines, no industrywide price increase is expected from Japan’s Tohoku earthquake, and any talk about a hard market is being greeted with skepticism, according to a financial analyst.

Storm losses in the United States over the past month are expected to exceed $100 million, according to a report issued by Aon Benfield.

XL Group says pretax losses from the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami will be between $190 million and $290 million.

A climate nuisance liability case to be heard by the Supreme Court may be the environmental case of the decade, according to William F. Stewart, a coverage attorney, who details the implications of Conn. vs. AEP.