The government on Friday said it will not ease investment limits on home-loan finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but didn't rule out an eventual increase.
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had argued that allowing them to take on more debt would help pump cash into the struggling mortgage market.
The announcement by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight came at the end of a week of speculation that the regulators would allow the government-sponsored companies a wider investment berth. The companies' shares had soared on Wall Street in an otherwise skidding market.