Thursday's Winners & Losers: Bear Stearns Shares Bear Up Well

Bear Stearns (BSC Quote) was among the volume leaders after the New York broker said that $1.9 billion in mortgage-related writedowns disintegrated its bottom line to a loss of $878 million, or $6.90 a share, in the fiscal fourth quarter. Just last month, CFO Sam Molinaro had pegged the writedowns at just $1.2 billion, though he has also proved prescient in adding, "[I] don't want to predict that things couldn't get worse, because things keep surprising."

The report came a day after Britain's Barclays (BCS Quote) sued Bear over one of its troubled subprime-focused hedge funds, according to several published reports. Bear shares, following some mixed trading, closed up 0.9% at $91.42.

Bond insurer MBIA (MBI Quote) fared much worse, with shares tanking more than 26% on a crushing disclosure. The Armonk, N.Y., firm said it has $8.14 billion in exposure to collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) backed by high-grade collateral, 85% of which consists of other CDOs -- in other words, CDOs backed by other CDOs, or CDO squareds. A Morgan Stanley analyst said he was "shocked" at the lateness of this revelation. ...