Mortgage Stocks Mixed in Tuesday's Rally

Despite a 215-point, or 1.7%, rally in the Dow Jones industrial average on Tuesday, mortgage stocks were mixed.Of the 16 stocks routinely tracked by MortgageWire, nine were up on the day and seven were down. Big names including Countrywide Financial, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac participated in the rally, climbing 3.8%, 1.7%, and 4.9%, respectively. On the down side, mortgage insurers Radian, PMI, and Triad all saw their share prices fall. Radian was down 5%, PMI was down 1.5%, and Triad's share price fell 0.6% on the day. The mortgage insurance firms continue to feel pressure from negative rating actions based on concern about credit losses in the mortgage sector. At around noon on Wednesday, the Dow had risen more than 250 additional points.