Housing stocks were mostly lower Friday as the federal government sent mixed signals on a plan that would provide cheaper mortgages to many borrowers.

Shares of homebuilders fell Thursday after Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. said it plans sell 14 million shares to raise cash.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Wednesday endorsed moves by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to expand their roles in the stricken mortgage market while pressing for greater oversight of the struggling government-sponsored companies.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index slid lower on Wednesday, pulled down by Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., Countrywide Financial Corp. and DR Horton Inc.

D.R. Horton said Tuesday it swung to a loss in the second quarter, as a sustained housing slump forced the nation's largest homebuilder to take hefty charges and write down the value of property.

The steeper slide in home prices is accelerating the pace of foreclosures, Fannie Mae said Tuesday as it outlined plans for shoring up its finances following a $2.2 billion first quarter loss.

D.R. Horton Inc <DHI.N>, the largest U.S. home builder, halved its dividend and posted a quarterly loss of $1.3 billion on Tuesday as it wrote down the value of its land and unsold homes after cutting prices and sweetening incentives to boost sales.

By Ilaina Jonas

Among the Premarket stories for Tuesday, May 6, from AP Financial News:

Shares of D.R. Horton Inc. dropped in premarket trading after the homebuilder posted a steep loss and write-down that an analyst said brings the company closer to peers' performance.

D.R. Horton Inc. reports fiscal second-quarter earnings Tuesday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period.

Wall Street could extend gains this week if financial results from market bellwethers such as Cisco Systems and data suggest the U.S economic slowdown is not as dire as once feared.

A government report due Thursday is forecast to show that construction activity fell 0.9 percent in March, the sixth traight monthly drop as the slowing economy caused more builders to put more projects on hold.

Housing stocks erased some losses after the U.S. central bank lowered a key interest rate Wednesday, but most remained lower for the day.