Prudential shares retreat a second straight session on Monday, company discontinues insurance policy distribution via Wells Fargo

On December 12th the NYSE-listed insurer Prudential Financial Inc announced it had discontinued the distribution of a low-cost life insurance policy via Wells Fargo & Company (WFC). As reported in the media, California Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, embarked on an investigation into allegations that Wells Fargo retail bankers had signed up clients for Prudential-provided life insurance policies without being permitted to do so.

Prudential shares closed lower for a second consecutive trading session on Monday. The stock tumbled 1.41% ($1.50) to $104.52, while marking its steepest daily decline since September 29th. The daily low of $103.44 a share has been a level not seen since December 7th ($103.10). In the week ended on December 11th Prudential shares soared 4.22% compared to a week ago, which marked their seventh consecutive period of advance and also the strongest performance since the week ended on November 13th. The stock has gained 3.90% so far during the current month, after surging 18.65% in November. The latter has been the stock’s best performance since July 2009, when an 18.94% increase was registered.

According to Reuters, allegations were part of a wrongful termination lawsuit, which was filed in New Jersey state court during the past week by 3 former representatives of Prudential Financials corporate investigation division.

In addition, a class action suit against the S&P 500-featured insurance company was filed yesterday in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey by clients of Wells Fargo. They claimed they were unaware of being signed up for insurance policies provided by Prudential.

In September the San Francisco-based Wells Fargo was ordered to pay fines and restitution at the amount of $190 million, as according to federal regulators, its tense sales campaign urged employees to create 2 million deposit and credit card accounts without being permitted by clients.

Prudential has cooperated with Wells Fargo since 2014 to sell the MyTerm insurance policy to the banks retail customer segment. Employees at the bank were supposed to direct clients either to use self-service kiosks in branches or to purchase the insurance on-line. However, no details in regard to these products were provided to customers, as bank employees are not granted license to distribute insurance.

According to Prudentials statement, a 2015 survey of customer opinions did not hint at potential fraudulent activity.

Daily and Weekly Pivot Levels

With the help of the Camarilla calculation method, todays levels of importance for the Prudential stock are presented as follows:

R1 – $104.74
R2 – $104.95
R3 (Range Resistance – Sell) – $105.17
R4 (Long Breakout) – $105.82
R5 (Breakout Target 1) – $106.58
R6 (Breakout Target 2) – $106.91

S1 – $104.30
S2 – $104.09
S3 (Range Support – Buy) – $103.87
S4 (Short Breakout) – $103.22
S5 (Breakout Target 1) – $102.46
S6 (Breakout Target 2) – $102.13

By using the traditional method of calculation, the weekly levels of importance for Prudential Financial Inc (PRU) are presented as follows:

Central Pivot Point – $105.01
R1 – $108.19
R2 – $110.36
R3 – $113.54
R4 – $116.72

S1 – $102.84
S2 – $99.66
S3 – $97.49
S4 – $95.32