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Empresas y finanzas

Loews posts lower-than-expected Q2 profit


    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Conglomerate Loews Corp reported a lower-than-expected second-quarter profit on Monday, hurt mainly by higher investment losses.

    The New York-based company, run by the Tisch family, posted earnings from continuing operations of $341 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with a profit of $511 million, or $1.00 a share, in the same period a year ago.

    Analysts were looking for a profit of 98 cents a share, excluding items, according to Reuters Estimates.

    Earnings were hurt by the declining value of CNA Financial Corp's mortgage-backed securities holdings. Loews owns a 90 percent stake in the commercial insurer.

    Chicago-based CNA reported a second-quarter net income of $105 million, or 27 cents a share available to common stockholders, compared to a net income of $181 million, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier.

    The two-year-old financial crisis and falling home prices caused losses on residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities held by CNA.

    Shares were up 5 cents at $30.07 in premarket trading with 300 lots traded.

    (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore and Elinor Comlay in New York; Editing by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri)