Before the Bell-Countrywide shares rise

NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Shares of Countrywide Financial Corp CFC.N rose 10.6 percent before the opening bell on Wednesday after falling 27 percent on Tuesday amid market talk of more financial problems at the mortgage lender.

On Wednesday, Countrywide said it funded $23.4 billion of mortgage loans in December, up 1 percent from November, and that lending activity for the quarter topped its forecast. It also said the rates of pending foreclosures and delinquencies among loans it services rose in December from November. For details, see [ID:nL096998]

Countrywide shares rose to $6.05 after closing at $5.47. (Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Kenneth Barry)