|
Post by jeffolie on Aug 3, 2007 14:13:06 GMT -6
credit market as the worst he'd seen in more than two decades. Stocks plunge on credit worries By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer NEW YORK - Wall Street plunged anew Friday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrial average down more than 280 points after comments from a Bear Stearns executive reinvigorated the market's fears of a widening credit crunch. The huge drop was a fitting end to two extraordinarily volatile weeks on Wall Street and followed back-to-back triple digit gains in the Dow. This time, the catalyst for a sharp skid was Bear Stearns Cos. Chief Financial Officer Sam Molinaro, who described conditions in the credit market as the worst he'd seen in more than two decades. According to preliminary calcuations, the Dow fell 283.62, or 2.11 percent, to 13,179.71. Broader stock indicators also slid. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 39.34, or 2.67 percent, to 1,432.86, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 64.73, or 2.51 percent, to 2,511.25. The session also saw a notable rise in the bond market, as investors fled to the relative safety of fixed-income investments. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.70 percent from 4.77 percent late Thursday. Bond prices move opposite yields. news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070803/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street;_ylt=AnlQGpUQ58MXHMBtmtvnqW.s0NUE
|
|
|
Post by jeffolie on Aug 3, 2007 14:24:10 GMT -6
Parts of secondary mortgage market freeze up
Many lenders can't sell loans on to other investors, market experts say
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch Last Update: 8:59 PM ET Aug 2, 2007
The private, secondary mortgage market "is not functioning," Perry wrote in an email to Indymac staff, which was posted on a Web site run by the company on Thursday.
It's currently difficult to trade even AAA rated parts of private mortgage-backed securities. Only mortgages that conform to the standards of government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) like Fannie are currently trading, Perry added.
That account was confirmed by Scott Valentin, a mortgage company analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey. "We're hearing securitizations have frozen up," he said in an interview. "No one wants to bid on these things and then find out that the loans are worthless tomorrow."
|
|
|
Post by jeffolie on Aug 3, 2007 14:38:18 GMT -6
Analysts are shocked Wall Street is shocked Larry Kudlow is shocked Bob Toll and Angelo Mozilo are shocked Realtors, appraisers, mortgage brokers, homebuilder and lenders are shocked. And HP'ers knew all along. The Great Unwinding is here. Are you ready? Bond market turmoil sending investors fleeing from risk may be a worse predicament than the 1980s stock market fall and Internet bubble burst, Bear Stearns Chief Financial Officer Sam Molinaro said on Friday. "These times are pretty significant in the fixed income market," Molinaro said on a conference call with analysts. "It's as been as bad as I've seen it in 22 years. The fixed income market environment we've seen in the last eight weeks has been pretty extreme." "So, yes, we would make that comparison" to market events that also include the debt crisis of the late 1990s, he said. housingpanic.blogspot.com/Bond turmoil worse than Internet bubble: Bear CFO Friday August 3, 2:50 pm ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bond market turmoil sending investors fleeing from risk may be a worse predicament than the 1980s stock market fall and Internet bubble burst, Bear Stearns Chief Financial Officer Sam Molinaro said on Friday. "These times are pretty significant in the fixed income market," Molinaro said on a conference call with analysts. "It's as been as bad as I've seen it in 22 years. The fixed income market environment we've seen in the last eight weeks has been pretty extreme." "So, yes, we would make that comparison" to market events that also include the debt crisis of the late 1990s, he said. biz.yahoo.com/rb/070803/bearstearns_markets.html?.v=1
|
|
|
Post by jeffolie on Aug 3, 2007 14:45:16 GMT -6
`While You Can' Greg Nierenberg, branch manager of closely held Approved Capital Mortgage Inc., a Woodland Hills, California-based mortgage broker that handles about $100 million in loans a year, said he receives daily emails from lenders warning of tightening lending standards. ``Good Morning, please get in your 90% stated income files before we reduce our guidelines on Monday,'' stated an e-mail he received today from Chase Home Equity. `` Get them in while you can.'' Washington Mutual yesterday told brokers and companies that sell mortgages that they can no longer use its software to lock in prices after 5 p.m., according to Alan Gulick, a spokesman. He wouldn't discuss other changes. ``This is probably the most dramatic I've seen in my career,'' said Nierenberg, commenting on changes in the industry he's worked in since the late 1980s. ``Their own reps from their own lenders don't even know what they can do from day to day.'' Wells Fargo, Rivals Cut Lending Amid `Credit Crunch' (Update2) By Kathleen M. Howley and Jody Shenn Laid off worker leaves American Home Mortgage offices Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. mortgage lenders such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Wachovia Corp. are raising rates and imposing stricter standards on some of their most creditworthy borrowers as slumping demand in the mortgage bond market chokes off funding. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, the second-biggest U.S. home lender, curbed its funding of Alt-A loans, made to borrowers with near-prime credit ratings or prime borrowers who don't document income. Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia, the fourth- largest U.S. bank, also stopped making Alt-A loans through brokers and smaller lenders and curtailed some adjustable rate mortgages, spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown said. ``The credit crunch is here,'' said Keith Shaughnessy, president of Foundation Mortgage Corp. in Littleton, Massachusetts. www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=adAnNDCTKYdc&refer=home
|
|
|
Post by jeffolie on Aug 3, 2007 14:47:18 GMT -6
Cramer totally flips out about the "armageddon" that is going on right now - This is too funny not to post - particularly on this fine Friday afternoon. Someone needs to commit Cramer. www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=452808336
|
|
|
Post by unlawflcombatnt on Aug 3, 2007 15:32:04 GMT -6
Cramer totally flips out about the "armageddon" that is going on right now - This is too funny not to post - particularly on this fine Friday afternoon. Someone needs to commit Cramer. www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=452808336LOL. " Bernanke has no idea how bad it is!!! " I hope he's not driving.
|
|
|
Post by unlawflcombatnt on Aug 3, 2007 16:21:56 GMT -6
According to preliminary calcuations, the Dow fell 283.62, or 2.11 percent, to 13,179.71. Broader stock indicators also slid. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 39.34, or 2.67 percent, to 1,432.86, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 64.73, or 2.51 percent, to 2,511.25. . Also, the Russell 2000 fell 3.64% today. The Russell 2000 is now lower than it was at the start of the year.
|
|
|
Post by Grapple on Aug 3, 2007 17:26:47 GMT -6
No, the private secondary mortgage market has not “functioned” in years. If it had functioned properly then illegal strawberry pickers in California who make $15,000 a year would never have been given mortgages on $750,000 houses
|
|
|
Post by naderzenith on Aug 3, 2007 19:30:10 GMT -6
thing is cramer and all of cnbc are squiling for their wall street friends. they are demonizing bernake when he knows inflation is out of hand. they want the party to continue for the top 1% even if it means a gallon of gas and milk end up costing ten buck. thanks god for bernake. we actually have someone thats intellectually honest in government in a key position. first time in a long time.
|
|
|
Post by unlawflcombatnt on Aug 4, 2007 2:26:20 GMT -6
thing is cramer and all of cnbc are squiling for their wall street friends. they are demonizing bernake when he knows inflation is out of hand. they want the party to continue for the top 1% even if it means a gallon of gas and milk end up costing ten buck. I have to agree with that. Cramer is talking about all of his rich friends at Wall Street firms who've finally gotten bit in the butt by being psychotically bullish. Now he wants Bernanke and the Fed to bail them out so they'll escape the consequences of their own greed and stupidity. I like the fact that Bernanke hasn't given them an unjustifiably easy escape. Unfortunately, I think Bernanke eventually will cave in, and bail out these greedy speculators. He just hasn't done it as of yet.
|
|