Friday's Financial Winners & Losers

Updated from 11:40 a.m. EDT

Financial stocks on the whole were slightly lower Friday as strong economic numbers led to concerns that the Federal Reserve might be reluctant to cut interest rates, despite the shakeout taking place in the mortgage sector.

The NYSE Financial Sector Index was down earlier in the day but later rose 0.7%. The Nasdaq Financial 100 also reversed an earlier-day loss to rise 1%, as did the S&P 500 Financial Sector Index, which was losing nearly half a percent earlier but later gained about half a percent.

Data released earlier showed unexpected growth in durable goods orders and a surprise advance in new-home sales. The Fed is more amenable to cutting rates when economic reports show weakness, and the latest figures could diminish the chance of a reduction in the near term.

Among individual stocks, Thornburg Mortgage (TMA Quote) lost 1.6% to close at $13.25 after saying it has sold a series of mortgage-backed securities, primarily rated AAA, from its portfolio.

As of Aug. 17, it had completed sales of more than 250 mortgage-backed securities, receiving proceeds of roughly $19.5 billion. Each of the transactions "was individually insignificant, but, in the aggregate, constituted a significant amount of assets," Thornburg said.

The Santa Fe, N.M., mortgage lender said it couldn't identify the purchasers of the securities since they were sold through dealers.

Westamerica Bancorporation (WABC Quote), the parent company of Westamerica Bank, got a lift from news that its board approved a plan to repurchase up to 2 million common shares. The buyback will run through Sept. 1, 2008, and will be conducted in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions.

The repurchase represents about 6.8% of the San Rafael, Calif., company's common stock outstanding as of July 25. The program replaces an existing 2 million-share repurchase, which had 576,000 shares left on June 30. Westamerica closed up 2.5% to $49.09.