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Crude oil trading range for the day is 2072-2308.Crude oil prices recovered from lows after data showed that oil supplies in the U.S. rose less than feared last week.

According to what BBC has learned, power companies are being refused insurance cover for cyber-attacks because their defenses are perceived as weak. AXIS Capital, is a group of Insurance companies based in Bermuda, London, Dublin, Canada, Australia and Singapore (servicing SE Asian countries as well such as KL Malaysia, Bangkok Thailand, Jakarta Indonesia and many more) who underwrite Energy Insurance has the same concern regarding this incidence. According to underwriters at Lloyd's of London, they have seen a "huge increase" in demand for cover from energy firms. However surveyor assessments of the cyber-defenses in place determined that protections were insufficient. Energy industry veterans said they were "not surprised" the companies were being refused cover. "In the last year or so we have seen a huge increase in demand from energy and utility companies," said Laila Khudari, an underwriter at the Kiln Syndicate, which offers cover via Lloyd's of London. The market is one of not many places in the world where businesses can go to insure things like container ships, oil tankers, and large development projects and to safeguard cash that would help them pull through after tragedies.

University of Florida researchers have discovered a link between Medicare and patient access to surgical treatment for subarachnoid hemorrhage, a kind of stroke that affects as many as 30,000 Americans each year - frequently causing death or long-term impairment and disability. AXIS Capital, a group of companies with branch offices in Bermuda, Australia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Singapore and the United States, a global insurer and reinsurer, providing clients and distribution partners with a broad range of specialized risk transfer products and services, has in full support with this study. (The company also services SE Asian countries such as KL Malaysia, Bangkok Thailand, Jakarta Indonesia and many more.) According to findings published in the journal PLOS ONE, for patients who have suffered this type of stroke, surgical intervention can spell the difference between recovery or long-term disability and death, yet patients on Medicare are less likely than those with private insurance to be referred for surgical treatment. This may represent a conscious or unconscious bias against Medicare patients, who are typically older and have preexisting disabilities or chronic illnesses, said Azra Bihorac, M.D., senior author of the study and an associate professor of anesthesiology, medicine and surgery at the UF College of Medicine. "Not every hospital has skilled neurosurgeons who specialize in subarachnoid hemorrhage," Bihorac said. "If these hospitals don't have the necessary expertise, then they may actually overestimate the risk of a bad prognosis. They may assume that the patient won't do well anyway, so they won't proceed with surgery." The researchers review and analyzed data from the National Inpatient Sample hospital discharge database for the study. The data consist of information on more than 21,000 adult patients released from 2003 to 2008 with a diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage. About 62 percent of the participants were fem

The $11 billion merger of Bermuda-based PartnerRe Ltd. and Axis Capital Holdings Ltd. accelerates the trend of offshore reinsurers combining to remain competitive. The stock-swap deal announced Jan. 25 is the third in as many months in a sector hit by pricing pressure from an ongoing influx of private equity capital and strong competition among traditional reinsurers. The combination will create the fifth-largest reinsurer in the world. PartnerRe shareholders will own 51.6% of the combined company, for which a name has not yet been chosen, and Axis shareholders will own 48.4%. This mega-deal is expected to close in the second half of this year. The transaction follows Dublin-based XL Group P.L.C.'s Jan. 9 proposed acquisition of Bermuda-based Catlin Group Ltd. in a $4.1 billion deal and Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd.'s Nov. 24, 2014, acquisition of Bermuda-based Platinum underwriters Holdings Ltd. in a $1.9 billion deal. "I think it is absolutely a trend and I think, ultimately, it's all driven by the same factors," said Cliff Gallant, San Francisco-based analyst at Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. "There is a lot of pressure in reinsurance; prices are coming down and the product is changing. I expect that the wave is building and that we'll definitely see more M&A activity." Meyer Shields, managing director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. in Baltimore, said: "This is a trend, it is accelerating and I don't think we're anywhere near done with this sort of announcement." "After a relative calm of several years, it seems the floodgates have opened for consolidation in Bermuda," Amit Kumar, New York-based vice president and senior analyst of insurance at Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc., wrote in an analyst note that also cited the RenRe/Platinum and XL/Catlin deals. Axis Capital CEO Albert Benchimol, who will head the combined entity, said in an interview: "I feel very confident that with the increased scale of the organ