STOCKS NEWS US-Calif housing market may be near bottom: JPMorgan

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U.S. stock market report [.N] 1256 ET 26Feb2009-Calif housing market may be near bottom: JPMorgan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Charlie Scharf, the retail banking chief at JPMorgan Chase on Thursday said that neither New York nor Florida were near bottoms in their housing market, though California could be.

California is "the one place of any real meaning" where prices appeared to be approaching "some kind of bottom," Scharf said. He added that "we know New York is going to deteriorate" in housing conditions and that in any way you look at Florida, "it's taking a long time to sell properties." [ID:nWEN5191]

Reuters Messaging: ryan.vlastelica.reuters.com@reuters.net 1230 ET 26Feb2009-Education companies fall on Obama student loan proposal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For-profit colleges and trade schools stumbled on Thursday after President Barack Obama proposed shifting federal student loans into a "direct-loan program" administered by the U.S. Department of Education.

Career Education Corp (CECO.O) tumbled 8.8 percent to $23.84 while ITT Education (ESI.N) slumped 8 percent to $107.94 and Corinthian Colleges Inc (COCO.O) fell 6 percent to $19.

The S&P 500 index of education companies .GSPEDUS fell 2.3 percent. The index overall has fallen 3.4 percent in 2009.

For details, see [ID:nN26412635]

Reuters Messaging: deepa.seetharaman.reuters.com@reuters.net 1156 ET-26Feb2009-Players aggressively grab SLM Corp puts ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shares of SLM Corp SLM.N, the largest U.S. student loan company, sank 41.12 percent to $4.94 near midday. Investors dumped shares in SLM, often referred to as Sallie Mae, and the stock's put volume and put premiums surged. SLM's primary business is to provide education finance in the U.S. and they have been subsidized as a number of other lenders have, to make loans to students. But "if private financing is no longer going to have subsidies which the Obama administration is considering, then I don't see what business model still exists for SLM," said Jon Najarian, a founder of optionmonster.com. He said there were massive amounts of put buying from institutions and individuals in SLM. He noted in the first two hours of trading, 19,100 contracts were bought in the March $5 strike put, which were 8 percent out-of-the-money when the stock was at $5.41. With the stock dropping, the premiums have been inflated substantially, he said.

Reuters Messaging: doris.frankel.reuters.com@reuters.net