AIG: Financial Winners and Losers

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- American International Group (AIG) was among the winners of the financial sector Thursday following a report the insurer has received payments from banks related to credit-default swaps it sold to guarantee debt linked to subprime mortgages.

AIG was lately up $1.02, or 2.9%, to $36.35 after the Wall Street Journal reported the insurer is receiving back some of the billions it paid out to Wall Street banks last year on souring trades related to credit-default swaps.

Billions of dollars have flowed from banks back to AIG in recent months, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. For the second quarter, the figure may have topped $3 billion, the report said, adding that Goldman Sachs (GS) has sent AIG as much as $1 billion.

Other insurers were also trading higher. MetLife (MET) was higher by 4% at $35.54 ahead of its quarterly earnings report after Thursday's close. Hartford Financial (HIG) added 6.5% to $24.77.

Meanwhile, Lincoln National (LNC) surged 10.7% to $24.63, after it posted earnings late Wednesday that topped the Thomson Reuters' average analysts' estimate. Aflac (AFL) climbed nearly 4% to $42.18 after it reported adjusted third-quarter earnings of $1.25 a share, beating the consensus target of $1.20 a share.

Several other financial stocks were trading off of their quarterly results. CME Group (CME) fell by 2% to $301.77 despite reporting third-quarter earnings that beat the Thomson Reuters' average analysts' estimate by six cents a share. On the other hand, Cincinnati Financial (CINF) rose 1.4% to $25.50 after it posted a profit of 59 cents a share, easily beating Wall Street's consensus profit view of 42 cents a share.