Stocks Pounded on Renewed Fed Easing Fears

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted over 225 points on Thursday over fears of the Federal Reserve starting to reduce its bond buying program and Wal-Mart cutting its forecast.

Housing-finance-related stocks were also hammered, as all but two Mortgage Industry Equity Composite members ended trading lower than their Wednesday close.

One of those two was KB Home, which was caught up in a homebuilder sector rally. Earlier in the day, the National Association of Home Builders said its builder confidence index was at its highest level since 2005. KB Home was also the most heavily traded MIEC member (other than Bank of America) on Thursday. It was up 5.26% on the day. Astoria Financial was up 0.94%.

PHH ended the day down 3%, followed by OceanFirst Financial, down 2.23%, and Redwood Trust, down 2.18%.