Countrywide Shares Dip on Subprime Fears

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Shares in Countrywide Financial Corp. continued to slip Monday as rising defaults heightened the perceived risk of owning bonds backed by subprime loans.


The Calabasas-based lender lost 3.3 percent ($1.37) Monday and closed at $40.84. Shares in the company, which is the largest mortgage lender in the U.S., have lost 9 percent over the last week.


Countrywide announced better-than-expected results for the first month of the year on Friday. The monthly lending numbers for January showed a 30 percent jump in new mortgages as well as a 13 percent hike in new loans most of these were fueled by buyer refinances.


However, excluding refinances, the numbers revealed an 8 percent drop in new loans for home purchases as well as a 3.3 percent dip in subprime lending. The percentage of past due loans also increased to 4.7 percent as did the percentage of loans with foreclosures pending, which jumped to 0.69 percent from 0.46 percent.


Wall Street’s subprime jitters also hit Pasadena lender IndyMac Bancorp., which lost another 26 cents Monday and already lost 7.6 percent over the past week, as well as Santa Monica’s Freemont General Corp., which lost 1.5 percent (18 cents) Monday and has dropped 16 percent over the past week.

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