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
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)
