The Bursting Continues

Bloomberg (08.03.07):

"Weyerhaeuser Co., the world's largest lumber company, said second-quarter profit plunged 89 percent after a U.S. housing slump cut demand for wood and the Canadian dollar's gain against the U.S. currency boosted costs."

Weyerhaeuser Net Plunges 89% as Lumber Demand Slumps

NYTimes (08.03.07):

"American Home Mortgage Investment, the troubled mortgage lender based in Melville, N.Y., will close today, making it the latest company to fail this year as loans made to home buyers, some even with solid credit histories, go bad.

In a news release issued last night, American Home Mortgage said that that it would lay off all but 750 of its 7,000 employees 'in light of liquidity issues resulting from disruptions' in the secondary mortgage market.

American Home Mortgage Says It Will Close

How's business? In a nutshell, it sucks. "'Conditions in both the secondary mortgage market as well as the national real estate market have deteriorated to the point that we have no realistic alternative,' Michael Strauss, the chief executive of American Home Mortgage said in a statement."