FannieMae posts
Posted Apr 15th 2009 11:00AM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Politics, Financial Crisis
Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) have similar purposes but different structures. Fannie Mae was founded in 1938 during the Great Depression for the purpose of purchasing and securitizing mortgages to keep funds flowing to institutions that lend money to home buyers. In 1968, the government converted Fannie into a private shareholder-owned corporation. Freddie Mac, on the other hand, was created in 1970 as a government-sponsored enterprise to expand the market for secondary mortgages in the US.
In September 2008, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director James B Lockhart announced that Fannie and Freddie would be placed under the conservatorship of FHFA.
Continue reading Should we say goodbye to Fannie and Freddie?
Posted Apr 14th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Chevron Corp (CVX), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS)

Today was just a day of selling the news. We had weak retail sales and we had lower than expected PPI data
showing no inflation. But after a 5-week straight rally, investors were selling into earnings despite many estimates looking excessively
easy to hit.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 7,918.11 -139.70 (-1.73%)
S&P 500 841.87 -16.86 (-1.96%)
Nasdaq 1,626.40 -26.91 (-1.63%)
Top Analyst UpgradesTop Analyst DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: Set up profit taking on news (CVX, DNDN, FNM, GS, JNJ)
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 12:30PM by Elizabeth Harrow
Filed under: Scandals, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Politics, Housing, Financial Crisis
According to a report today in The Wall Street Journal [subscription required], Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) -- those twin titans of mortgage mayhem -- are planning to dish out $210 million worth of retention bonuses over the next 18 months. James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, explained that $51 million in payouts were distributed in late 2008, with the rest of the bonuses to be disbursed through 2009 and into early 2010.
The news is already raising politicians' ire, since Fannie and Freddie are staying afloat only through the grace of government bailouts. The two lenders reported combined losses of roughly $108 billion in 2008, says the Journal, yet 80% of Freddie's employees and 61% of Fannie's payroll will score retention bonuses based on this bleak operating performance.
Continue reading Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac planning massive retention bonuses
Posted Feb 19th 2009 2:51PM by Todd Harrison
Filed under: Citigroup Inc. (C), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Economic data, Lloyds TSB Group plc ADS (LYG), Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis
This port was written by Minyanville contributor Minyan Peter.
I think the Government will try at all costs to create the impression that only a limited number of banks are going to be nationalized. To achieve this, Secretary Geithner has requested that the top 15-20 banks in the country undergo a stress test, where regulators will review banks' capital positions under a variety of economic scenarios. And, based on these reviews, those banks that fail will be given convertible preferred stock to boost their capital levels to some yet to be determined level.
Continue reading What will nationalization mean?
Posted Jan 15th 2009 5:15PM by Todd Harrison
Filed under: Deals, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Federal Reserve, Recession, Financial Crisis
The dismantling of the financial stocks is mind-boggling but not entirely unexpected. Last year, we discussed the need for culpability to extend throughout the societal spectrum, from borrowers who over-extended on their credit to the institutions that financially engineered risk to policy makers who were compliant by acceptance.
The fact that many of these names are going to Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) is perhaps the healthiest possible scenario through the lens of "taking medicine as a function of time and price." It is, however, massively unfortunate for the employees who simply followed marching orders.
We're talking livelihoods lost here. Life savings evaporated. Careers ruined.
Therein lies the "other side" of the aforementioned "healthy" scenario: societal and structural implications. We've talked about the former ad naseum so I don't think we need to beat that horse. On the structural side -- and something to keep in mind for those calling for the heads of financial professionals -- is the fact that if there isn't incentive for people to fix the system, it simply won't get fixed.
Incentive on Wall Street equals money. The industry will be austere and ripe with humility, mind you, but we must find our way to a healthy supply-demand and a balanced give-and-take. For if we don't crack the code in short order, we risk that our capital market structure will cease to exist altogether.
Posted Jan 12th 2009 2:15PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Deals, Bank of America (BAC), , Personal finance, Housing, Recession, Financial Crisis

Not to worry, your mortgage is $200,000 and your house is worth only $150,000. Fannie Mae to the rescue. Fannie Mae will let you sell your home at $150,000 and Fannie Mae will take the loss. You don't even need a buyer for your home!
This situation is called being "upside down," which means that you owe more than the house is worth. Selling your home when you are "upside down" is called a "short sale."
This is not a new practice. It has been used before but never without a buyer. Most deals fell through because the paper work took too long or because lenders, servicing firms and mortgage guarantors rejected the sales price. For these reasons, "short sales" have a bad reputation among real estate agents.
Continue reading Fannie Mae's new program. Is this a winner or what?
Posted Jan 12th 2009 1:01PM by Marjorie Backman
Filed under: Mutual funds, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Personal finance, Federal Reserve

In these times of economic uncertainty many investors are taking a closer look at bonds and bond funds. But if individual investors are looking for a safe place to grow their savings, they should select funds carefully.
As the
New York Times observed in a December 26 piece,
Older Investors Should Examine the Risks in Bonds, "Because conditions may worsen before they improve, older investors should check that their bond investments are indeed what they thought they were--and that they fit their tolerance for risk." The article quoted Financial Counselors bond manager Gary Cloud: "We are in a 2 to 3 percent world, and if they want to earn more than that they need to proceed cautiously."
A
WSJ January 4 piece
In Search of Wall Street Bargains, carried Morningstar analyst Lawrence Jones' assessment of 2008 as an "absolutely brutal year" for most bond investors and observed: "Bond prices tumbled as investors anxious about the economic slowdown dumped corporate bonds and other obligations that carry the risk of default." Meanwhile, Treasury securities and the funds composed of them "delivered strong returns as investors bid up the prices of these safe havens."
Also on January 4, a
Chicago Tribune piece,
Bonds may be a shield, but they're still risky, echoed this theme. Noting that Steve Savage, editor of No-Load Fund Analyst, has advised individual investors to consider corporate bond funds and even high-yield bond funds, the
Tribune warned, "Whenever yields are high, there is a good chance that financially stressed companies won't be able to repay their debts. In other words, bonds would default and investors would lose money."
Continue reading Picking the right bond fund to stash your cache and grow it safely
Posted Jan 6th 2009 5:00PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Market matters, Money and Finance Today, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis
Last Friday the Fed announced a $200 billion dollar program for buying toxic assets from banks to help them stay afloat. Yesterday the New York Federal Reserve Bank started a new $500 billion dollar program for buying toxic securities from Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM)
Since Friday the yield on 30 year agency mortgage securities dropped from 208 basis points over Treasuries down to 190 basis points. This has had the effect of lowering mortgage rates. The rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage has dropped to 5.3% from 6% last November.
The Fed is using four firms to conduct these transactions. They are: BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Pimco and Wellington Management.
As was stated previously, the Fed has not disclosed the details of any of these repurchase programs. They are saying that they will be doing this "as the need arises."
A dramatic effect of this new Fed action is the sharp drop in US Treasuries, which today are down another 217 basis points on the 30 year March futures contract. Since last Wednesday the March 30 year bond futures contract has dropped from 141 down to 133 for a drop of about 800 basis points or $8,000.
I guess we can assume from all of this that Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the banks are in much deeper trouble than the Fed led us to believe last November. The Fed is not calling these bailouts any longer. They are just going ahead with these massive programs, programs that, by and large, investors and the public are not aware of.
What are your thoughts on these programs?
Posted Jan 3rd 2009 10:00AM by Greg Tucker
July 14 -- Dow 11,055 (down 45 points); trading range, 327 points
The third-largest bank failure in U.S. history made headlines after IndyMac Bancorp collapsed following a run on the bank.
An FDIC takeover of IndyMac attempted to keep operations as normal as possible, but doubts began to arise about other troubled regionals like Washington Mutual (later sold to JPMorgan Chase) and National City (now a part of PNC Financial after an October "take-under," where the company was purchased at a discount to its stock value).
But wait, there's more. After years of financial shenanigans and controversy, Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) and Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) were placed into conservatorship in a federal takeover of the government sponsored enterprises. This contributed to another slaughter in the financials, with 96% of the sector posting a loss for the session.
Oh, and if you wanted to drown your sorrows over an American-owned brew, scratch Budweiser off your list. Anheuser-Busch agreed to merge with Belgium's InBev for $70 a share, or $52 billion.
Greg Tucker is the executive editor of OptionsZone.com.
Posted Dec 31st 2008 3:00PM by Bryan Perry
Filed under: Bad news, Newsletters
This shorting strategy defied all odds and pretty much defined the year for the stock market.
I don't know anyone who truly thought Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) would both be trading under a buck as 2008 came to close.
The idea of these once-in-a-class-by-themselves quasi-government entities that touch more than 85% of all mortgages in the United States going into full receivership by the government was considered foolish, almost ludicrous discussion that only invited serious sarcasm from professional Fannie and Freddie watchers.
The ultimate collapse of both stocks was devastating, not only to investors that continued to believe all the false headlines spewing from the front offices of FNM and FRE that said they were more than amply capitalized, but the whole financial sector as well.
The notion that Freddie and Fannie were too big to fail was a given, sucking in long-side investors at every 10-point interval on the way down to zero.
Continue reading Best Trades of 2008: #5 Shorting 'too big to fail' Fannie and Freddie
Posted Dec 31st 2008 9:00AM by Bryan Perry
Filed under: India, China
For most investors and traders, 2008 was a tough year. But while many people saw their portfolio take a merciless beating and watched their retirement vanish into thin air, there were a select few who made a killing.
In fact, if you had been on the right side of any of these bets, you could have banked enough dough to make up for your losses and then some.
Here are five trades everyone wishes they had made in 2008:
#1 Shorting 'Chindia' the day after New Year's: The Chindia experience peaked in Beijing with Michael Phelps, and the market knew it would a year and a day before the Closing Ceremonies.
#2 Getting long and staying long the 30-year Treasury bond: This strategy went from being a modestly successful trade through October to a hero-sized trade in the past 45 days.
#3 Shorting oil on the Fourth of July: The drop in oil prices has been nothing short of unbelievable. Those that had the fortitude to short crude in early July (and had the stones to stay with that trade) made a killing.
#4 Buying DryShips (DRYS) at the November low: Following its meteoric rise to $116, the stock careened all the way down to $3. But if you went long then, you saw the share price quadruple in less than a month.
#5 Shorting 'too big to fail' Fannie and Freddie: This shorting strategy defied all odds and pretty much defined the year for the stock market.
Posted Nov 21st 2008 12:40PM by Elizabeth Harrow
Filed under: Bad news, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Housing, Financial Crisis
Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) said today that it received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), warning that the mortgage firm could be delisted due to its rock-bottom share price. FRE has been trading below $1 for more than 30 days now, and must notify the exchange by December 2 whether it intends to rectify the problem.
If Freddie does decide to meet the NYSE's listing requirements, it will have until mid-May to address the share-price issue; if not, its common stock and preferred stock are subject to suspension and delisting. In a statement, Freddie Mac said it's "currently working with its conservator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to explore options relating to this deficiency and has not yet determined its response."
Earlier this week, Freddie's sister Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) received an identical warning from the NYSE. The troubled siblings hit the headlines for somewhat more respectable reasons earlier this morning, when the pair announced they would temporarily halt foreclosures during the holiday season.
After opening broadly higher this morning, FRE has fallen to a 6% loss at 46 cents per share. Sibling Fannie is faring better today; that stock is up roughly 9% at last check -- though today's gain takes the per-share price only as high as 36 cents.
Elizabeth Harrow is an analyst and financial writer in the research department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. She is featured in the video series Schaeffer's Daily Q&A on SchaeffersResearch.com.
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