Friday's Financial Winners & Losers

Investment house Bear Stearns(BSC) sent financial stocks in a downward spiral Friday after hemorrhaging more than half its value after news of a bailout involving the New York Federal Reserve Bank and JPMorgan Chase(JPM).

Just two days after he tried to dispel credit rumors on CNBC, Bear CEO Alan Schwartz did an about face and said in a statement that the company's liquidity position in the last 24 hours "had significantly deteriorated." In rare move, the Fed allowed Bear access to the discount window mid-month through JPMorgan, providing the company 28 days of secured funding. The stock had collapsed 39% to $34.62, a loss of $22.53.

Bear's collapse drove down the Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index 8.6% to $156.58 and the NYSE Financial Sector Index fell 3.8% to 6,861.08.

The bleeding continued over at Lehman Brothers(LEH). Its shares slid 14% to $39.62, even after announcing it closed on a $2 billion bank facility.

Banks weren't immune to the selling disease sweeping across the market. Worried at the risk it was taking on with the Bear bailout, JPMorgan Chase shares slid 4% to $36.58. Concern over at Citigroup (C)led the big bank to state that it would sell non-core assets. Its shares were selling $19.84, a drop of 5.8%.

But it wasn't just the big banks sinking, Cleveland-based National City (NCC) tanked 12.7% to $13.10. The regional bank was downgraded by Moody's on Thursday evening to A3 from A2 with the rating company saying it expects the bank will face sizable losses in its home equity portfolio.

And Moody's didn't stop there. It also cut Washington Mutual's(WM) debt rating to just a notch above junk. The mortgage crisis was cited as the reason and shares responded accordingly ticking down another 11.2% to $10.77

Fellow debt rater Standard & Poor's lowered its rating on MoneyGram International (MGI), slicing the long-term counterparty credit rating to B+ from BB. It based its decision on the increased debt service that the money transfer firm will have to bear if it completes its recapitalization under the current plan. The stock plunged 17.8% to $1.94

Also falling off a cliff was payday loan company Advance America, Cash Advance Centers (AEA) after it was cut to equal-weight from overweight at Stephens Inc. The analyst said the Spartanburg SC-based company is fully exposed to any changes in state regulations and that risks have increased over the past year. The slumped a whopping 15% to $6.06.

The rare bright spot of the day was Bermuda-based reinsurer Quanta Capital Holdings (QNTA) which jumped 9.8% to $3.01 after announcing that it declared a special dividend of $1.75 per share for a total payout of about $122.7 million.

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