Reuters - The New York Federal Reserve president said on Friday that turbulence in the U.S. market for high-risk mortgages is unlikely to have a lasting effect on credit markets, but, in a sign of spreading woes, the subprime mortgage unit of General Electric Co. laid off more employees.

Reuters - Blackstone's pending $4-billion initial public offering may be tempting for individual investors, but shareholders beware: the firm's growth will be tough to maintain, and its business difficult to grasp, IPO analysts said on Friday.

Reuters - Freddie Mac , the No. 2 U.S. mortgage finance company, reported a fourth-quarter net loss on Friday as a decline in long-term interest rates affected the value of its loan assets.

AFP - US lawmakers Thursday called on the multitrillion-dollar mortgage industry to tighten up its lending practices and said they were mulling legislation to crack down on predatory lenders.

Reuters - U.S. government officials on Thursday minimized the broader economic impact of a crisis in the subprime mortgage market, but the largest U.S. mortgage lender said foreclosures in 2006 may be the worst yet.