When Fannie Mae has a day like Tuesday but still goes up anyway, what's a bear to do?   Read More

A hedge fund manager argues in the WSJ that the housing market is bottoming. Is he right… or out of his mind?   Read More

The first of May is a day when a lot of people (including traders) are off all over the world (it's also the title of a very fine Bee Gees song, c. 1969). Futures dropped a bit as jobless claims were a bit stronger than expected; nonfarm payroll report is tomorrow.    Read More

Following are the day’s biggest winners and losers. Find out why shares of Quest Diagnostics and Jeffries Group popped while Sears and National City dropped.   Read More

Why's Congress handing money to homebuilders that homeowners should get?   Read More

So we have yet another plan to help save homeowners in trouble, the latest in a long string of proposals. Are they enough to solve the housing market's problems? Is this a game changer? There's plenty of skeptics who think the answer is an outright no.    Read More

Centex wouldn't comment on Stephen East's estimate that the company got 18 cents on the dollar for the land it sold--an estimate based on his calculation that the land was originally valued around $900 million.    Read More

Every time I want to say that the bleeding is over, I’m proven wrong. Centex just announced that they sold about 10 percent of their land holdings to a joint venture for what analysts compute is about 18 cents on the dollar.    Read More

I don’t often get to chat with the CEOs of the big public builders anymore. Most of them can’t stand me because they think I’m to blame for the downfall of the housing market (What? Is my middle name Mozilo or something???).    Read More

To date 291 (just under 60%) of the S&P 500 companies have reported earnings. Here's a look at which companies have had the biggest surprises so far...   Read More