Using Insurers as a Barometer By Jim Cramer About this article: If you are on the lookout for "tell" stocks that give you a perspective on when the market's awful or great, look no further than the insurers, which seem to give you the skinny from the get-go. If you monitor Lincoln, Genworth -- wow, that one's something -- Hartford, Principal and Prudential, you pretty much get the best read possible because of the potent combination of poor reserves (always denied), terrible portfolios (especially commercial real estate, which is always harped as great by the companies) and underwater annuities (always presumed by the companies to not be a worry). The rally today seems counterintuitive because Protective, which didn't bother to purchase a savings and loan to get some sort of government protection, is doing a stock offering. Maybe people think that these companies all have windows to issue stock and get more liquid -- even as they... To read the rest of this article and sign up for a FREE trial click here...

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