The news at a glance

Countrywide: Feds pore over the books

The FBI is investigating Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, for possible securities fraud, said Glenn R. Simpson and Evan Perez in The Wall Street Journal. Investigators want to know if Countrywide lied to investors about its financial strength and about the quality of the mortgage loans it packaged into securities. Documents uncovered by the authorities include “evidence that may indicate widespread fraud in the origination of Countrywide mortgages.” Other documents suggest that “Countrywide’s losses may be several times greater than it has disclosed.”

Despite the investigation, Bank of America apparently “plans to press ahead with its $4 billion takeover” of the mortgage company, said David Mildenberg in Bloomberg.com. “Nothing I’ve seen,” said Tom Atteberry of money management firm First Pacific Advisors, “suggests that Bank of America is backing off.” Meanwhile, Countrywide is hardly the only player in the mortgage mess under federal scrutiny. At least 14 companies are known to be under investigation, “including mortgage lenders, developers, and Wall Street firms that packaged loans into securities.”

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Commodities: Oil hits a new high

Oil prices topped $109 a barrel for the first time this week, said George Jahn in the Associated Press, “as investors sought refuge from the anemic dollar.” Oil was going for $87 a barrel as recently as January. “The surge to new records,” said energy analyst Victor Shum, “is driven by the speculative and large funds moving into commodities.” At the same time, gasoline prices hit $3.222 a gallon this week, just below their all-time high, according to the Lundberg survey. Analysts say prices are likely headed higher in the coming weeks, as the higher price of crude oil is passed along to refiners and ultimately to gasoline retailers.

Investment banking: Massive layoffs at Lehman

Lehman Brothers this week laid off 1,400 employees, 5 percent of its workforce, amid a severe downturn in the financial markets, said CNBC.com. Lehman joins several of Wall Street’s biggest banks that have cut payrolls “in the face of a market slowdown, sluggish mergers-and-acquisitions activity, and write-downs related to the ongoing subprime mortgage crisis.” Lehman, which had built up a large mortgage-lending business during the housing boom, shuttered its lending operation in November, eliminating 1,300 jobs.

Advertising: Cable networks form an alliance

The six largest cable networks have created an alliance that will “allow national advertisers to buy customized ads and interactive ads across the companies’ systems,” said Tim Arango in The New York Times. “Getting the right advertisement to the right person, based on that individual’s own tastes and lifestyle, has been the promise of cable TV for years.” The alliance will customize ads by collecting information on consumers’ viewing habits and interests from their set-top cable boxes.

Mutual funds: Fidelity pays $8 million settlement

Fidelity Investments paid $8 million last week, to settle civil charges that its traders accepted improper gifts from brokers seeking the firm’s business, said Andrew Caffrey in The Boston Globe. The gifts included tickets to sporting events and concerts, as well as illegal drugs, federal authorities said. Peter Lynch, the former star manager of Fidelity’s flagship Magellan Fund, was cited for accepting “nearly $16,000 worth of free tickets to prize entertainment events, including Ryder Cup golf matches and concerts.”