CFC on deathwatch - http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-markets-stocks.html Wall Street Slides on Countrywide Fears By REUTERS Published: January 8, 2008 Filed at 12:03 p.m. ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks turned sharply negative on Tuesday as shares of financial services companies slid with traders citing rumors of more financial problems at Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender. The company was not immediately available to comment. "There is renewed speculation that Countrywide will declare bankruptcy or have some default action," said Al Greenberg, head floor trader at broker-dealer BNY ConvergEx Group in Chicago. (Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu in New York and Doris Frankel in Chicago; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Jesus, just cut through $6 like no bodies business. A halt would be pretty cool right now if this is true.
The Countrywide Financial Corporation fabricated documents related to the bankruptcy case of a Pennsylvania homeowner, court records show, raising new questions about the business practices of the giant mortgage lender at the center of the subprime mess. The documents â three letters from Countrywide addressed to the homeowner â claimed that the borrower owed the company $4,700 because of discrepancies in escrow deductions. Countrywideâs local counsel described the letters to the court as ârecreated,â raising concern from the federal bankruptcy judge overseeing the case, Thomas P. Agresti. âThese letters are a smoking gun that something is not right in Denmark,â Judge Agresti said in a Dec. 20 hearing in Pittsburgh. The emergence of the fabricated documents comes as Countrywide confronts a rising tide of complaints from borrowers who claim that the company pushed them into risky loans. The matter in Pittsburgh is one of 300 bankruptcy cases in which Countrywideâs practices have come under scrutiny in western Pennsylvania. Judge Agresti said that discovery should proceed so that those involved in the case, including the Chapter 13 trustee for the western district of Pennsylvania and the United States trustee, could determine how Countrywideâs systems might generate such documents. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/business/08lend.html?ref=business
bank america is looking real stupid for buying a 2 billion dollar stake when cfc was at 18...thats a 66% loss in about 3months-who's the genius at bac that tried catching this falling knife.
BAC was just an access window to FED funds for CFC. More than likely that position was neutral for BAC.
BAC acquired convertible preferred stock yielding 7.25%, not common stock. Further, I would not be surprised to learn BAC hedged the transaction in order to at least lock-in the yield on the preferred. http://www.cnbc.com/id/20410286/