Reuters - New Century Financial Corp. , one of the largest U.S. subprime mortgage lenders, on Thursday said profit rose 6 percent as loan volume jumped by more than one-third.

AP - SLM Corp., known as Sallie Mae, promoted Thomas Fitzpatrick to chief executive to replace Albert Lord, who will be elected chairman later this month.

AP - Shares of Fannie Mae tumbled Monday to their lowest intraday level in more than 10 years on a report that the mortgage financing company's chief regulator is looking into possible improper accounting of trusts it uses to sell mortgage-backed debt.

The Motley Fool - SYSCO (NYSE: SYY - News) is one of those old-standby stocks that a lot of magazine journalists and TV financial advisors love. The base business is easy to understand, the company dominates its industry, and the stock has rarely gotten hammered by the market for any extended period of time. So it's the perfect type of stock to recommend if you don't want your picks to come back and haunt you.

Reuters - The hot U.S. housing market powered forward in April thanks to low mortgage rates and rising incomes, which propelled U.S. construction spending and pending sales on existing homes to new highs, data showed on Wednesday.

AP - MetLife Inc. on Friday said it completed its $11.8 billion acquisition of Citigroup's Travelers Life and Annuity Co. and nearly all of Citigroup's international insurance businesses, which will make MetLife the nation's biggest life insurance company in sales.

The Motley Fool - It's good to shop for a mortgage before you even begin house hunting. You'll have a leg up, knowing exactly what you can afford, and you'll strike sellers as a serious buyer.

AP - Annual house-price growth has slowed to its lowest level in nine years, a major mortgage lender said Thursday.

AP - The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. is cutting life insurance rates for some women with breast cancer, citing improved treatment and research that is helping more women survive the disease.

AP - Multicap funds defy classification. In these go-anywhere offerings, portfolio managers have the freedom to roam into whatever areas of the market they think are set to shine, and historical returns suggest that could give them an edge.

Reuters - Don't worry about those 24 shopping days until Christmas. It's the 31 check-writing days before New Year's that should concern you.

Reuters - U.S. workers grew more confident about their job security and personal finances last month, according to a survey on Wednesday by staffing company Hudson Highland Group Inc. .

Reuters - (Linda Stern is a freelance writer. Any opinions in the column are solely those of Ms. Stern. You can e-mail her at lindastern(at)aol.com.)

BusinessWeek Online - The U.S. economy relies heavily on consumer spending for growth. Personal consumption expenditures make up nearly 70% of total real gross domestic product. That's why economists are closely watching the housing market and personal income.

AP - Intuit Inc. on Monday sued H&R Block Inc. for alleged copyright infringement, escalating the recent acrimony between the leading makers of tax preparation software.

FT.com - US stocks were trading higher higher this morning, buoyed by continued strong earnings, and data that showed that personal income and consumer spending both rose more than expected in March. The market was also cheered by strong preliminary reports from Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), which reported strong preliminary earnings for April, boding well for the rest of the retail sector. Other stocks in focus include Level 3 (NASDAQ:LVLT), Xerox (NYSE:XRX), and Chevron.

AP - Black and Hispanic home buyers are more likely to pay high mortgage rates than white borrowers with similar credit ratings and income levels, an advocacy group found.

FT.com - HBOS, the UK's largest mortgage lender, is set to issue up to EU3bn of covered bonds days after the UK government said it was to consult on introducing a legal framework for such deals.

Reuters - Ratings agencies would have to give Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac additional scrutiny under a proposal that lawmakers will consider on Wednesday.

BusinessWeek Online - For cash-strapped homeowners, it was a pitch they couldn't refuse: Refinance your mortgage at a bargain rate and cut your payments in half. New home buyers, stretching to afford something in a super-heated market, didn't even need to produce documentation, much less a downpayment.

AP - While some homeowners have been wringing their hands, agonizing over a cooling real estate market, they might be surprised to see that real estate funds are on track to top the market for the seventh straight year.

AP - The future is gnawing at homeowner Scott Klimek. Will the interest rate on his adjustable-rate mortgage go up? Will he be able to afford the monthly payments if it does?

AP - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke served up 'intellectual food' to visiting bankers Friday, offering a smorgasbord of high-calorie topics like mortgage markets, inflation expectations and optimal monetary policy.

AP - Wall Street presumably isn't a place where those hoping to mend their ways in the new year might turn for inspiration. But some investors looking to better align their social or religious convictions with their investments have found sizable returns.

Reuters - An affordable housing fund envisioned as part of a reform measure for mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should have several contributors and be managed by a wide range of housing groups, a top congressional Democrat said on Thursday.

AP - Rates on 30-year mortgages fell for a second straight week to the lowest level since the beginning of the year.

AP - The subprime mortgage implosion will take even more steam out of the already slowing real estate market this year and beyond, according to a new economic report.

FT.com - Punch Taverns, the UK's largest pub landlord, on Tuesday damped early hopes that it might convert to a real estate investment trust.

Reuters - Luxury home builder Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. said on Friday that the subprime mortgage meltdown tripped up the industry just as some markets were showing signs of recovery.

FT.com - Uruguayans will be scrutinising their pay packets this month after the government introduced its first income tax in nearly four decades from July 1, as the centrepiece of a package to reform the country´s unwieldy tax system.

Reuters - French bank BNP Paribas said on Wednesday it was unaffected by problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector, which has been a cause of concern for financial services companies.

AP - Ameriquest Mortgage Co., once the nation's largest subprime lender, will close with barely a whimper, after the other assets of its parent company were sold Friday to Citigroup Inc.

AP - UBS SA, the largest Swiss bank, said Monday it would post a pretax loss of up to $690 million in the third quarter mainly because of losses linked to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis.

AFP - Swiss banking group Credit Suisse on Thursday recorded a 31 percent drop in net profit for the third quarter due to the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States.

Reuters - Mortgage industry executives worked on Saturday to hammer out details of a homeowner rescue plan that would freeze interest rates on some U.S. subprime mortgages for up to seven years, but questions remained over how to avoid investor lawsuits and other legal challenges.

Reuters - Mortgage and vehicle fleet company PHH Corp said on Tuesday it terminated its nearly $2 billion sale to General Electric Co and Blackstone, after the private equity firm failed to obtain required financing for the deal.

Reuters - Beazer Homes USA Inc said on Friday it would cease some operations, including mortgage origination, causing unspecified charges.

AP - Loosening the regulatory reins around Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gives them the freedom to play a bigger role in trying to stabilize a worsening housing market.

AFP - Swiss bank UBS revealed a second round of subprime-related writedowns of about 19 billion dollars on Tuesday, becoming the world's worst-hit bank in the US mortgage crisis.

Reuters - The Bush administration will get broad price-setting powers under a student loan market stabilization plan given final approval on Thursday by the U.S. Congress, lifting the stock prices of student loan providers.

Reuters - Washington Mutual , the giant bank and home lender slammed by the mortgage slump, said on Monday it would strip Chief Executive Kerry Killinger of his title of chairman starting next month.

AP - CIT Group Inc. said Tuesday it will sell its home lending business to Lone Star Funds for $1.5 billion in cash, plus $4.4 billion of assumed debt, in a move to exit the troubled mortgage arena and focus on its commercial finance operations.

Reuters - Britain's financial watchdog has found no evidence that illegal dealing was behind an abrupt fall in the shares of mortgage lender HBOS in March, but warned it would not relax its surveillance of the market.

Reuters - Merrill Lynch & Co , battered by more than $40 billion of write-downs tied largely to mortgages, said on Tuesday it hired Michael Nierenberg from JPMorgan Chase & Co to head its mortgage and securitization businesses.

AP - The government is kicking off a program that aims to prevent foreclosures by letting an estimated 400,000 troubled homeowners swap their mortgages for more affordable loans.

AFP - British ministers will hold talks with a leading Scottish businessman over a possible rival bid for mortgage lender HBOS, which has been hit hard by the subprime crisis, the government confirmed Saturday.