Last week ...U.S stocks

Last week, Fannie and Freddie’s shares were hammered last week amid mounting fears of capital constraints and played a major role in the market’s weekly decline. On Friday, Treasury and Federal Reserve unveiled sweeping steps to shore up the troubled mortgage financing giants if need be and head off a potential meltdown in global financial markets. Fed said the companies could access its discount window for emergency cash. The Treasury separately said that it would temporarily increase its line of credit to the two, as well as purchase equity in them, if needed. The move by the Fed echoed its emergency action to help rescue investment bank Bear Stearns in March, when it opened the discount window emergency lending facility to investment banks for the first time since the Great Depression