AP - The government's Christmas Eve pledge of unlimited financial aid to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is aimed at making sure the housing market doesn't take another turn for the worse and cause the economic recovery to unravel.

AP - The government on Wednesday provided a fresh $3.8 billion cash infusion to stabilize GMAC Financial Services as the financing company struggles with hefty losses in its home mortgage unit.

AP - Key events in the government's rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

AP - Illinois is embracing a licensing database that officials say will help ensure the competency of mortgage loan professionals.

The Motley Fool - Even on the market's worst days, buyout news and other short-term forces can send individual stocks up by 10%, 25%, even 50%.

Reuters - Morgan Stanley has been sued by a Virgin Islands pension fund that accused the Wall Street bank of defrauding investors by marketing $1.2 billion of risky mortgage-related notes that it expected to fail.

AP - Commercial lender CapitalSource Inc. on Tuesday said it received about $119 million in cash proceeds after closing mortgages backed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

AP - Financial services firm Stifel Nicolaus & Co. will complete the buyback of auction-rate securities from individual investors six months early under a settlement reached Monday with Missouri and other states.

Reuters - Fannie Mae's gross mortgage portfolio shrank sharply in November, at an annual 26.1 percent rate, to $752.2 billion, the largest U.S. home funding provider said on Monday.

AP - Attorney General Lawrence Wasden says Idaho homeowners who were duped into paying a New Jersey company to help them modify their mortgages will get more than $19,000 in a settlement.