Winners & Losers

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Financial Winners & Losers: Regions

Debra Borchardt

Financial stocks were sliding again Friday, as continued bad news from the housing market contributed to taking the shine off largely better-than-expected second-quarter earnings reports over the past two weeks.

A report from the Commerce Department Friday showed that sales of new homes fell for the seventh time in the past eight months, as RealtyTrac separately reported that foreclosures in the second quarter more than doubled from the year earlier. Government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM Quote) and Freddie Mac(FRE Quote) slid on the news. Fannie shed 5.4% to $11.37, and Freddie gave back 6.4% to trade at $8.25.

CNBC reported that Lehman Brothers(LEH Quote) was considering a sale of its Neuberger Berman asset management unit. If sold, the unit could bring about $8 billion. The stock fell 6.8% to $17.27 as investors showed their displeasure that Lehman would sell one of its most profitable businesses.

Wachovia Bank(WB Quote) tumbled after a Morgan Keegan analyst hit the company with a sell rating and news broke that the CFO Tom Wurtz would be leaving the company. The stock fell 8.6% to $14.34.

Bank of America downgraded Birmingham, Ala.-based bank Regions Financial(RF Quote) from buy to neutral. The stock continues to be under pressure as the banks struggle to get positive news. The stock fell 10.4% to $9.10.

Similarly, Washington Mutual(WM Quote) was trying to recover from Thursday's selloff. The stock started the day in negative territory, but was fighting back and was only down 1.5% to $3.97. Reuters reported on Friday that the cost of protecting Washington Mutual's debt for five years rose to $1.80 million on an upfront basis, plus $500,000 in annual premiums, up from about $1.35 million plus $500,000 annually.

Interactive Brokers(IBKR Quote) reported a 58% increase in its second quarter earnings, but fell short of analysts' expectations. The electronic market maker and broker delivered a solid 44 cents per share, but the analysts, who hadn't received much guidance from the company, expected 50 cents a share. Interactive has only been a public company for a year and analysts had not been happy about the company's insistence on not giving guidance. The stock traded down 19.1% to $26.04.

The NYSE Financial Sector Index flip-flopped throughout the day but lately declined 43.72 to 6,359.62.

One of the big winners of the day was Glacier Bancorp(GBCI Quote) which shot up 8.5% to $20.40 after the Montana-based bank delivered a 10% increase in second-quarter net earnings and declared a dividend that was an 8% increase over the previous year. However, the CEO warned that duplicating the performance for the rest of the year would be challenging.