WaMu Swings to $1.9B Loss

Updated from 5:23 p.m. EST

Washington Mutual(WM Quote) posted a net loss that missed analysts' estimates as the troubled consumer-centric company safeguards its business from future loan losses and damage amid the sour mortgage environment.

The bank's net loss of $1.87 billion, or $2.19 a share, was worse than the mean expectation of analysts polled by Thomson Financial by a whopping 83 cents a share. That compares to a profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.10 a share, a year earlier. Revenue of $3.41 billion fell short of analysts' mean expectation of a loss of $1.36 a share on $3.51 billion of revenue.

WaMu attributed the quarterly loss to a $1.6 billion after-tax charge to writedown goodwill in its Home Loans unit as well as higher provisioning because of the housing market weakness. ...