Countrywide Raises Concerns; Stock Crushed

In a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Countrywide Financial Corp. -- the nation's largest mortgage banking firm -- revealed that it had $190 billion in short-term liquidity, but that just one-quarter of it ($46 billion) "is highly reliable and available."In early trading Friday morning, its stock was down 13%, or $4 a share. Countrywide filed its 10-Q with the agency late Thursday night, a day in which world stock markets cratered amid concerns that America's subprime crisis has spread overseas, causing large losses at foreign banks that bought risky nonprime bonds and residuals. In its filing, Countrywide notes that "the secondary market and funding liquidity situation is rapidly evolving and the potential impact on Countrywide is unknown." Countrywide adds that market conditions are forcing it to hold more loans on its balance sheet. The company can be found online at http://www.countrywide.com.