FreddieMac posts
Posted May 13th 2009 10:40AM by Mark Fightmaster
Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Housing

Late Tuesday,
Freddie Mac (NYSE:
FRE) reported that its
quarterly net loss checked in at $9.9 billion thanks to rising delinquencies. The company also blamed the results on continued impairments on its holdings of mortgage-backed securities. On a per share basis, FRE's quarterly loss increased to $3.14 a share, compared to $151 million a year ago, or 66 cents a share. The mortgage lender's total revenue dropped to $771 million from $1.41 billion a year ago.
FRE put aside $8.8 billion in provisions in order to cover credit losses for the first quarter, up from $7 billion in the final quarter of 2008. FRE attributed this to the increase in the number and rate of delinquent mortgages, coupled with increasing foreclosure-related losses.
Continue reading Freddie Mac's earnings fall as delinquencies increase
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 4:15PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: Boeing Co (BA), Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Wells Fargo (WFC)

Despite the market being up the last hour, today's stock market made six changes between being up and down. Oil inventories
continued their building to record or near-record levels. It was very light on the economic calendar today so traders had to use the cumulative earnings as the directional report. Even very
weak global recovery targets from the IMF were ignored.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 7,886.41 -83.15 (-1.04%)
S&P 500 843.56 -6.52 (-0.77%)
Nasdaq 1,645.85 +2.00 (0.12%)
Top Analyst UpgradesTop Analyst DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: Directionless market, but directed stocks (BA, CAL, COF, FRE, WFC, OSTK)
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 Mar 2nd 2009 12:00PM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Management, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM)

When
Fannie Mae (NYSE:
FNM) and
Freddie Mac (NYSE:
FRE) were taken over by the government in September, both were
given new CEOs to replace the clowns who got them into the mess.
Now Freddie Mac's CEO is heading for the exits. In a press release, the company said that CEO David Moffett would resign as CEO and as a member of the board no later than March 13. From the press release:
Moffett indicated that he wants to return to a role in the financial services sector. In his letter of resignation, he said, "I have enjoyed my time as CEO of Freddie Mac and I wish all the great employees the very best in the days to come."Continue reading Freddie Mac CEO calls it quits after a few months
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 30th 2009 6:45PM by Peter Cohan
Filed under: Federal Natl Mtge (FNM)
In 2008, the average stock on the S&P 500 lost 38.5%. John Paulson, no relation to the former Treasury Secretary who is famous for making billions shorting sub prime mortgages in 2007, made almost exactly the same percentage increase as the S&P 500 lost. So in some sense, if you're wondering what happened to your money, ask John. He's got it.
Exactly how well did Paulson do and how did he do it? Paulson Advantage Plus, his largest fund with $7 billion in assets, returned 37.6% net of fees for 2008 -- this means that his pre-fee returns probably topped 40%. Paulson again bet right about the collapse of financial institutions. In early 2008, Paulson shorted Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) -- betting that they'd become insolvent or need to raise additional capital that would dilute shareholders.
Continue reading Wonder where your money went last year? John Paulson took it
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?
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