Thursday's Financial Winners & Losers

Updated from 1:46 p.m. EDT

Financial stocks strayed far beneath the drowning broad indices Thursday as they were hit particularly hard by encroaching credit worries and issued a stream of disappointing earnings.

Advance America Cash Advance Centers (AEA Quote) and World Acceptance (WRLD Quote) were two of today's worst financial losers after the South Carolina lenders both came in short of Wall Street expectations, per Thomson Financial. The former missed by 2 cents with a second-quarter profit of 19 cents a share; the latter posted 61-cent income for the fiscal first quarter, which is off by 3 cents.

Advance America shares plunged 12.6% to $15.65 as World Acceptance lost 9.7% to $34.13.

National City (NCC Quote) slid 2.4%, also on slipshod earnings. The Cleveland bank said it made $347 million, or 60 cents a share, or a penny shy of the average Street view. Shares closed down 74 cents to $30.10 to help pull down both the NYSE Financial Sector Index and the KBW Bank Index. Both trackers were in free fall, respectively plummeting 2.7% to 9122.46 and 2.4% to 106.21.

Elsewhere, online broker E*Trade (ETFC Quote) lost 6.9% in a retreat from its late-trading lift Wednesday. The New York company topped second-quarter targets while also narrowing its 2007 pro-forma earnings outlook to $1.58 to $1.72 a share. That trims 3 cents from both the upper and lower end of prior guidance, as the $1.65 midpoint -- which is also that sought by analysts -- remains unchanged. Shares closed at $19.05.