It looks like White Mountains (WTM) is shaking off some of the cobwebs… with today’s high, WTM was up about 12% in the last two days. It’s been a value stock that I’ve watched off and on (and owned briefly), and it looks like it might just have the energy to buck the gruelling 2 year downtrend it has been in. The 12% run is a good start…

White Mountains is an insurance company that took a bit of a hit last year with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They paid out about $200 million for claims. Despite the fact that they had (and have) a huge cash position that more than covered the claims ($900m then, $1.1b now), their stock price was hammered. In theory, they survived the claims and should have been able to raise insurance rates, thus making this year more profitable.

The current strength is based on their recent earnings release so it could lose momentum quickly. I’ll be watching to see if a new uptrend starts to form and thinking about buying again.