(Bloomberg) — Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac extended days-long losing streaks amid mounting unease about the impact of President Donald Trump’s policy moves on efforts to release the mortgage-finance giants from government control.
Fannie and Freddie common stock both sank around 10% in Friday trading to the lowest intraday levels since late November, with Fannie falling for a fifth day and Freddie down for a seventh day. Both stocks have tumbled more than 40% from peaks reached in September, but still remain up over 60% from year-ago levels.
Optimism about upcoming IPOs had fueled notable 2025 gains for the two companies, which have been under Washington’s control since the financial crisis. Momentum crested after word in August that the administration was contemplating an IPO that could value the enterprises at around $500 billion or more, involving selling 5% to 15% of their stock to raise about $30 billion.
Recent proposals including requiring Fannie and Freddie to purchase mortgage bonds and remarks casting doubt on an offering anytime soon have further damped that optimism. For Matthew Aks at Evercore ISI, the “IPO dead” narrative is getting a lot of attention but it’s not the full story.
“I have heard some anecdotes of people who have been in this trade for a year and are up a good bit already just deciding now is the time to take profits and get out,” the strategist said. He still sees a path forward for the investors, which he described as “not quite full IPO but still a way where there is more upside.”
In recent weeks, investors have been assessing a slew of housing-linked proposals from Trump, including directing Fannie and Freddie to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds, a move he cast as part of an effort to bring down housing costs. There is also speculation about what the president may say regarding housing next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Trump’s mortgage-bond directive “adds risk to the balance sheet in the event of future losses,” JPMorgan global economist Joseph Lupton writes in a note.
“To the extent the administration has talked in the past about letting the GSEs go private, levering them up in this way could delay their release from government control,” he said, referring to Fannie and Freddie as government-sponsored enterprises.
On Thursday, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte hailed Trump’s decision not to sell the mortgage-finance companies during his first term. “Thanks to President Trump’s decision to not sell these companies for $100 billion in his first term, Fannie and Freddie are getting stronger every day,” he wrote in a post. Earlier this month, Pulte had said Trump would decide on the next steps for the IPOs of Fannie and Freddie in the next month or two.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
