Thornburg Mortgage Inc. (NYSE: TMA) Chief Executive Larry Goldstone said there is a "crisis of confidence" in the mortgage market.
No kidding.
Shares of Thornburg fell about 9% after Goldstone made that insightful comment on CNBC. They are down 45% for the year amid concerns about the subprime mortgage meltdown. Thornburg sold about $20.5 billion in mortgage-backed securities today to return to "business as usual" -- whatever that means.
Worries about subprime mortgages continued to weigh-down the market, as did the drop-off in oil prices caused by weather forecasts that indicated Hurricane Dean wouldn't hit the oil-producing areas of the Gulf of Mexico. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq Composite Index managed to hang onto positive territory for now as investors continued to hope -- make that pray -- that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will eventually cut interest rates.
Bargains abound for the adventurous.
Financial stocks including Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM), Bear Stearns Cos. (NYSE: BSC), and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) continued to slide. Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE: CFC) rallied after announcing job cuts. Home builders including Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL), Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH) and Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: HOV) also fell.
Some pundits are urging investors to turn their attention to emerging markets such as China, India and Russia. Tech stocks have gotten beaten up as well.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-30-2007 @ 2:10PM
joan Hogan said...
is there a fund for mortgage foreclosures that include securities fraud?