AP - Stocks fluctuated Thursday as a surge in oil prices fanned investors' growing inflation concerns. But a rebound in shares of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and gains by energy companies helped stocks pull off their lows.

Reuters - Heightened expectations for a government bailout of U.S. home-funding giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac drove their debt prices higher on Thursday as investors bet the securities will be guaranteed by the U.S. government even if shareholders are wiped out.

Reuters - Thousands of homeowners with distressed mortgage loans linked to failed lender IndyMac may soon be able to avoid foreclosure under a program announced on Wednesday by U.S. banking regulators.

AFP - US mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw their share prices plummet Wednesday amid heightened concerns about their ability to ride out the credit crisis without government help.

Reuters - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday as bank and energy shares rebounded even as investors dumped Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on fears of an imminent government bailout of the housing finance companies.

Reuters - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares plunged to their lowest levels in almost 20 years on Wednesday, while the mortgage companies' bonds rallied on the belief that an increasingly likely government bailout would wipe out shareholders but secure their massive debt.

AP - Investors are betting that time is running out for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Reuters - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc , Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Morgan Stanley may incur further writedowns, mainly on their mortgage assets, said an analyst at Citigroup, who cut his third-quarter outlook for the U.S. investment banks.

AFP - US private equity group Lone Star is to buy IKB, the German bank rescued by the state development bank KfW after collapsing because of the subprime mortgage crisis, the KfW said Thursday.

AP - As mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac struggle with continuing credit losses, their ability to raise needed capital is uncertain and, analysts say, is complicated by the possibility of a government bailout of the two companies.

AP - Mortgage application volume fell last week to its lowest levels in nearly eight years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.

AFP - Speculation about the stressed financial health of US mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac swirled Wednesday as their share prices further plummeted.