Stocks took off Thursday morning, up nearly 270 points, but they dropped off by midday to a more modest gain. The Dow was up 45.64 at 9,034.93. Financial stocks were led by American Express Co., which advanced 68 cents to $25.89 on news that it will lay off nearly 10% of its staff as well as freeze salaries and hiring. Meanwhile, Fannie Mae saw a jump of as much as 6% on an increase of its mortgage portfolio balance to $761.4 billion last month from $759.98 billion in August, for a 2.3% annual rate, the Washington-based company said in a statement. Overall, most financials were trading in the positive by midday. Here's a closer look of the performance of some key financial stocks.
- Maria Woehr
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