Reuters - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said on Friday that their finances were sufficiently sound to withstand the housing crisis as government officials scrambled to restore confidence in the country's two largest mortgage finance companies.

AP - The last thing the Bush White House and the rest of the country needed in these economically trying times was another financial crisis. But they got one.

Reuters - U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday as fears about the stability of the top two home financing providers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with oil at a record above $147 to cloud the economic outlook.

AFP - As panicked investors pushed US mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the brink, debate swirled on whether the meltdown was a crisis of confidence or the onset of wider economic woes.

Reuters - Fear the two largest U.S. mortgage finance companies are in such poor health that they need a government bailout pushed financial markets lower on Friday, although stocks pared losses as officials began to talk of safety-net moves for the ailing sector.

AP - Wall Street's angst over the ongoing fallout from the credit crisis made for a turbulent end to a volatile week Friday — stocks tumbled, soared and then turned south again as investors tried to assess the dangers faced by the country's biggest mortgage financiers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Reuters - U.S. banking regulators swooped in to seize mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc on Friday after withdrawals by panicked depositors led to the third-largest banking failure in U.S. history.

AP - IndyMac Bank's assets were seized by federal regulators on Friday after the mortgage lender succumbed to the pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures.

AP - Wall Street and Washington wrestled Friday with how to shore up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two troubled pillars of the economy whose failure would deal a devastating blow to the already crippled housing market.

AFP - US conglomerate General Electric Co. will sell its Japanese consumer finance arm to Shinsei Bank in a multi-billion dollar deal, a newspaper reported Friday.

AP - Fears that the government will be forced to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could well become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

AFP - Japan's Shinsei Bank said Friday it had agreed to buy US giant General Electric's Japanese consumer finance arm for 580 billion yen (5.4 billion dollars) in a major push into the troubled sector.