Travelers Companies Inc (TRV.N) posted a higher-than-exected quarterly profit and the largest publicly traded U.S. property insurer said there were early signs businesses were finally willing to spend more on insurance. Despite deep-seated pessimism about pricing and competition among property and casualty insurers worldwide in 2011, Travelers said things were actually looking up, with pricing "modestly better" in the fourth quarter than the third. "Given some of the trends we saw in the fourth quarter we are somewhat more optimistic than we were a few months ago," Chief Executive Jay Fishman said on a conference call.
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