AP - Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac soared Monday after Freddie completed a $2 billion debt sale and a Wall Street analyst said a government bailout of the mortgage finance giants may not be inevitable.

AP - Do Washington policymakers listen too much to Wall Street? A possible bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, on the heels of similar action involving investment firm Bear Stearns, seems to send a loud signal to financial companies that the government will clean up their messes.

AFP - German bank IKB, a casualty of the subprime mortgage crisis, was sold to US private equity group Lone Star for 150 million euros, German media reported Saturday.

AP - Do Washington policymakers listen too much to Wall Street? A possible bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, on the heels of similar action involving investment firm Bear Stearns, seems to send a loud signal to financial companies that the government will clean up their messes.

Reuters - A major credit rating agency cut the preferred share rating on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac amid mounting concern about the ability of the two largest U.S. home funding providers to access capital, in the latest blow before a widely expected government bailout.

AP - Freddie Mac talked to investors this week about possibly buying its stock to raise much-needed capital but billionaire investor Warren Buffett said he passed on an opportunity to help the troubled mortgage giant.

Reuters - Warren Buffett said the economy is still in a recession and unlikely to improve before 2009 but that stocks appear better valued than a year ago.

Reuters - Moody's Investors Service on Friday cut its ratings on the preferred stock of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on concern that market turmoil has hurt their access to capital.

Reuters - Panicked investors are dumping shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , but derivatives trading is likely to continue normally with two of the largest players in the market, a trade group official and a bank risk manager said.

AP - Freddie Mac talked to investors this week about possibly buying its stock to raise much-needed capital but billionaire investor Warren Buffett said he passed on an opportunity to help the troubled mortgage giant.

Reuters - Any effort by the Treasury Department to backstop Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would seek to maintain the companies as shareholder-owned enterprises, a source familiar with Treasury thinking said on Friday.

Reuters - The Dow and S&P 500 rose on Thursday as surging oil prices drove up energy shares, though fresh fears of more credit losses on Wall Street kept gains modest and pushed the Nasdaq into negative territory.

AP - Wall Street finished mixed Thursday after investors largely shrugged off a jump in oil prices and focused instead on a bullish call on Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. that eased worries about the financial sector.