Genworth Financial Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What:Genworth Financial (NYS: GNW) dropped 10% in intraday trading today after a trading website issued a press release raising concerns about the outlook for life insurers, including Genworth Financial.

So what:Shinesrooms.com, which describes itself as "the ultimate trading environment for investors," issued a press release offering free research on Genworth and MetLife (NYS: MET) . The release stated, "For companies in the Life Insurance sector, the weak economy and recent bad financial news out of both the United States and Europe have contributed to their generally poor performance."

Now what: The press release went on to state that Genworth's and MetLife's "Life Insurance businesses in particular may have been negatively affected by persisting low interest rates in the United States and a weak economy." It highlighted the companies' dependence on government bonds for earnings and noted those bonds are, "being viewed as increasingly risky and unreliable". The press release makes a valid point, but it isn't new news.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Cindy Johnson does not own shares of any company named above. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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