World Briefing | Americas: Panama: Noriega Appears In Miami Court Manuel Antonio Noriega, the 72-year-old former Panamanian Army general and dictator, appeared in court in Miami to fight a plan to extradite him to France.... Read Full Article Motorists Driven Crazy Can Vent Road Rage On Website Other road users were driving Niall O’Keeffe crazy and then he had his Eureka moment. The result is <a href="http://www.shitedrivers.com">shitedrivers.com</a> &... Read Full Article Online Pizza Sales Deliver For Domino’s Internet sales over Christmas have doubled for Domino’s Pizza, helping the company to a 14.7 rise in full-year results.... Read Full Article Lowe’s Posts Lower Profit And Cuts Outlook The home improvement chain said third-quarter profit fell 10.2 percent amid a continuing housing slump, and it slashed its outlook for the fourth quarter and the full year.... Read Full Article World Briefing | Europe: France: Art Heist Near Paris Some 30 paintings by such masters as Monet, Cézanne and Corot and a Rodin sculpture were stolen from the home of an antiques dealer near Paris.... Read Full Article |
Countrywide Warns On Profits And ’prime’ LoansCountrywide Financial sent shockwaves across the credit industry today when America’s largest mortgage lender declared that the well-publicised problems with its high-risk subprime homeloans had spread to its prime loan book and issued a profits warning for the year. The group accompanied its profits warning by reporting a 33 per cent dive in its second-quarter net income to $485.1 million, as Countrywide wrote down the value of homeloan assets related to borrowers with strong credit ratings by $388 million. Countrywide, which in recent months has halved to 4 per cent the volume of subprime mortgages it makes as a percentage of new loans, cut its full-year forecast by 23 per cent as a decline in high-risk lending failed to outweigh a surge in late payments on its prime loans. The group’s shares fell by 7.4 per cent in mid-day trading, as it slashed the middle of its earnings forecast range from $3.90 to $3.00 a share. &&&§ionName=IndustrySectorsBankingFinance,mywindow,menubar=0,resizable=0,width=615,height=655); Related Links Bernanke says sub-prime crisis could cost $100bn Crisis-hit Bear Stearns moves fund chief asideAngelo Mozilo, Countrywides chief executive, said: Looking to the second half of 2007, we expect difficult housing and mortgage market conditions to persist. The bottom has fallen out of America’s housing market in recent months as increasingly lax lending practices have led to a surge in defaults on subprime mortgages, which is contaminating the entire market. The average house price is predicted to fall by a record 8 per cent this year in a slump that will lead an estimated 722,000 households to lose their home in 2007. Every day new evidence emerges that shows the fall-out from lax subprime lending is spreading. Allison Transmission, General Motors’ gearbox making division, became the latest business to postpone the sale of loans yesterday that would have been used to finance its leveraged buyout by a private equity consortium. Carlyle Group and Onex had planned to raise $3.1 billion of debt to help finance their acquisition but cancelled its plans because nervous lenders were unwilling to back the offering. Allison Transmission’s failed fundraising came just a day after Expedia, the online travel agent dramatically scaled back its planned share buyback, from $3.5 billion to $750 million, because it could not raise sufficient debt to finance the transaction. Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationHSBC’s US arm racks up $4bn more in bad debt$...World Business Briefing: Britain: Armor Holdings Acquired... Stocks Give Up Gains From Fed Plan... Fed establishes another baleful landmark... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Countrywide Warns On Profits And ’prime’ Loans |
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