What We're Hearing

Day traders are being credited with recently driving up the share price of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Freddie’s shares now trade for $2 compared to a 52-week low of 25 cents. Fannie’s stock trades for $1.80 compared to a low of 30 cents. But check out the August sales by company insiders. At Fannie executives such as David Hisey, Thomas Lund, and William Senhauser have been unloading shares at prices ranging from $1.03 to $1.13 which means they missed out on some nice upside. Then again, the future of Fannie and Freddie is unwritten and won’t be addressed by Congress until next year, if then. Meanwhile, the holding company of Colonial Bank of Alabama filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday. Among the unsecured creditors is one Don Powell of Amarillo, Texas, who submitted a claim of $432.92. Could this be the former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chairman? Stay tuned...