Mortgage Stocks Drubbed on Wednesday

Worries about a Federal Reserve pull-back flared up on Wednesday and as a result, 15 of the 17 Mortgage Industry Equity Composite stocks closed lower. The sell-off cost 13 of those stocks more than 1% of their Tuesday closing price.

PHH was down 5.03%, while CoreLogic was off by 5%, and MGIC Investment Corp. lost 4.75%.

The only MIEC stocks which finished the day ahead were PennyMac, up 0.79%, and Home Loan Servicing Solutions, up 0.56%.

Surprisingly, the market is still enamored with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, up 7.02% and 11.33%, respectively. Fannie Mae plans to sell $2 billion of commercial-mortgage securities issued before the credit market seizure, according to Bloomberg.

At an investor conference, John Stumpf, the Wells Fargo CEO, said Fannie and Freddie need to be retained in some form.