Analysts will be looking for updates on New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's probe of the insurance industry as insurers such as XL Capital report results this week.

Spitzer sued Marsh & McLennan on October 14, alleging the largest insurance broker rigged bids and accepted payments in return for steering business to favoured insurers.

The suit implicated some of the largest companies in the industry, including ACE Ltd., American International Group and the Hartford.

Bermuda-based insurers XL, which releases its results tonight and holds a conference call tomorrow morning, and Axis Capital, which announces its results on Wednesday, are among many other firms to have been subpoenaed as part of the ongoing investigation.

Analyst will also be looking to see the effects of Hurricanes Charley, Ivan, Frances and Jeanne on insurers and reinsurers' results. So far, many Bermuda companies have reported losses or sharply lower profits for the third quarter as a result of the storms.

XL is expected to report a third-quarter loss of 53 cents a share thanks to hurricane losses, according to analysts polled by Thomson First Call.

"The company will have huge, huge catastrophe losses," Paul Newsome, an analyst at A.G. Edwards, told CBS MarketWatch.

"We'll be looking for updates on pricing in the reinsurance industry, and specifically whether these storms will affect the pricing of catastrophe reinsurance."

XL said on Thursday that its XL America subsidiary got a subpoena that day from Mr. Spitzer inquiring about insurance industry sales practices. The firm is cooperating with the probe and has started an internal review.

In addition, it's also likely that XL will face questions about its acquisition of the property and casualty business of Winterthur from Credit Suisse, the A.G. Edwards analyst added.

XL is locked in negotiations with the financial services giant over the payment it will receive from Credit Suisse under the reserve indemnification associated with the sale, according to Mr. Newsome.