Countrywide shares slipping...

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Good afternoon. Another Monday brought another stock market selloff -- to the tune of 237 Dow points -- -- on more worries about the housing and credit crunch (Anemailer argues it’s not a ‘crisis,’ just a correction. Really? At Countrywide Financial, it’s a crisis).

Countrywide shares fell to $8.61 today after Sen. Charles Schumer complained to federal regulators that Countrywide may be abusing the Federal Home Loan Bank system.This from Reuters: ‘A U.S. regulator should scrutinize billions of dollars of loans that have helped keep troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial afloat in recent months, Schumer said on Monday. ... At the end of September, Countrywide had borrowed $51.1 billion from the Federal Home Loan Bank system -- a government-sponsored program.

There was other crummy news on the credit/housing front:

--A CNBC report that Citigroup is thinking about ‘massive’ layoffs. How massive? CNBC’s Charles Gasparino reports ‘the total number could reach as high as 45,000’ -- that’s not a typo. That’s out of 320,000 jobs.

--A UBS analyst downgraded shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and HSBC Holdings said it will put two funds with mortgage exposure on its balance sheet and spend $35 billion to bail them out.

Thoughts? Comments? Insights? Email story tips to lalandblog@yahoo.com