AFP - Troubled mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac reported a shocking loss in the second quarter that bodes ill for the US taxpayer after the government's huge rescue package.

Reuters - Freddie Mac on Wednesday posted its fourth straight quarterly loss as it braced for a prolonged housing crisis by setting aside twice as much money for bad loans and plans to slash its dividend by at least 80 percent.

AP - NEW YORK (AP) — Freddie Mac on Wednesday posted a second-quarter loss that was more than three-times larger than Wall Street expected as a huge number of borrowers with good credit fell behind on their exotic and risky mortgages.

AP - Stocks traded narrowly mixed Wednesday as a drop in oil prices helped corral the market's fresh worries about the financial sector.

AFP - Troubled mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac on Wednesday reported a market-shocking loss in the second quarter as the US housing slump deepened and slashed its dividend at least 80 percent.

Reuters - Stocks extended gains on Wednesday as a reassuring outlook from Cisco Systems and a further drop in the price of oil overshadowed nagging concerns about the housing slump.

Reuters - Fannie Mae is raising some fees on mortgage loans its purchases, marking the fourth increase in nearly a year, to reflect higher credit risk and offset losses from continuing market deterioration.

Reuters - The Treasury said on Tuesday it hired Morgan Stanley to advise it on whether housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are adequately capitalized as the government tries to determine how it would use its new powers to support the two companies.

AFP - The collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the United States and the subsequent global financial crisis has provoked the sharpest fall on world stock markets since the end of the Internet bubble in 2001-2002.

Reuters - Morgan Stanley told thousands of clients this week that they will not be allowed to withdraw money on their home-equity credit lines, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the situation. Most of the clients had properties that have lost value, the agency reported, citing a person who declined to be identified.

AP - Wall Street fell Monday in an erratic session dominated by worries about inflation — which were somewhat soothed by a plunge in oil prices that took crude to its lowest level in three months.