Reuters - U.S. mortgage market giant Freddie Mac's chief executive dismissed internal warnings that could have protected the company from some of the financial problems now engulfing it, the New York Times said, citing more than two dozen current and former high-ranking executives and others.

Reuters - Europe's biggest bank HSBC reported a 28 percent fall in its first-half profit, in line with forecasts, as a $14 billion hit on bad debts on U.S. home loans and asset writedowns offset strong Asian growth.

AP - Stocks pulled off their lows Monday after a big drop in oil prices offset some of investors' concerns about a government report on inflation.

Reuters - Wachovia Corp shares fell as much as 10.3 percent on Monday after an analyst said investors should sell the shares of the fourth-largest U.S. bank and avoid the pain likely to result from repairing a balance sheet bloated with mortgage and real estate loans.

Reuters - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc is in talks with prospective buyers, including BlackRock Inc, to sell mortgage assets and other hard-to-value securities, according to reports on Friday.

Reuters - IndyMac Bancorp Inc , once one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders, has filed for bankruptcy protection, less than three weeks after being seized by federal regulators following a bank run by depositors.

Reuters - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc is in talks with prospective buyers to sell about $30 billion in commercial mortgage assets and other hard-to-value securities, the New York Post reported on its website.

Reuters - Britain's financial watchdog has found no evidence that illegal dealing was behind an abrupt fall in the shares of mortgage lender HBOS in March, but warned it would not relax its surveillance of the market.

Reuters - IndyMac Bancorp Inc , once one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders, has filed for bankruptcy protection, less than three weeks after being seized by federal regulators following a bank run by depositors.