Hartford Financial Services' investors' knees buckled under fears that it could be the next financial firm to collapse.  Shares of the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer and investment manager fell 18.0%, or $9.01, to close at $40.99 on fears its exposure to the beleaguered credit markets and tenuous financial strength will lead to a chain reaction now all too familiar on Wall Street.  Fitch warned as much late Monday. On Tuesday, the credit rating agency said the company's exposure to credit markets could trigger ratings downgrades, and that it had revised its outlook on Hartford (nyse: HIG - news - people ) to "negative."  Although Fitch noted that the insurance company had the capacity to address the deterioration of its capital position in the near term, the negative outlook reflects the agency's view that the conditions in the financial markets could get worse, exacerbating the company's already substantial problems.  The cost to insure the company's debt with credit default swaps also jumped 43.8% to a new record. Hartford's credit default swaps weakened to 407 basis points, or $407,000 per year for five years to insure $10.0 million in debt, from 283 basis points at Monday's close, according to Markit Intraday.  Times have been tough for Hartford. Two weeks ago it reported it held $91.0 million in senior debt of Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ), $127.0 million in subordinated debt and $34.0 million in preferred stock. It also reported that it held $8.0 million in American International Group (nyse: AIG - news - people ) senior debt, $7.0 million in subordinated debt and no preferred stock. Over the past month the company's shares have lost 35.0% of their value.  Lehman and AIG have become poster children of the crisis on Wall Street. Both recently went down in flames, with Lehman filing for bankruptcy and AIG effectively being taken over by the U.S. government.
Shares of the insurer and investment manager fall on fears it will fall victim to the credit crisis.