Most Mortgage Stocks Spared in Big Selloff

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 416 points (3.29%) on Tuesday, but most of the 19 mortgage-related stocks tracked by MortgageWire were spared from the hardest hits.Doral Financial, a Puerto Rico-based bank and mortgage lender, lost 8.51% of its stock value in the selloff, but the company's shares had already been battered by an accounting controversy. Among the other stocks on the index, the ones that declined more than the Dow were NetBank, down 7.65%; Triad Guaranty, down 4.44%; Fannie Mae, down 4.04%, and KB Home, down 3.63%. While the rest performed better than the broad market, only one, LandAmerica Financial Group, posted a gain on the day. LandAmerica's shares rose 13 cents, or 0.19%. Treasury bonds increased in value during the Feb. 27 selloff, driving down rates and probably providing some support to the home loan sector. Analysts attributed the selloff to a big drop in Asian stock values, disappointing durable goods numbers, and uncertainty about the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq. In morning trading on Wednesday, the mortgage stocks were mostly flat, with eight of the stocks on the index down slightly and 11 up slightly.