On a day when the markets were relatively quiet, following the Federal Reserve’s move to calm credit fears on Friday, a number of companies hit by the subprime implosion sought to cut back their exposure or bolster their liquidity.

Capital One said  it would shut down its GreenPoint Mortgage unit and take a charge of $860 million. Capital One acquired GreenPoint when it acquired North Fork Bancorp for more than $13 billion last year.

K.K.R. Financial, an affiliate of the private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., plans to sell $500 million in stock to seven institutional investors, including funds managed by Morgan Stanley, Farallon Capital Management, and Oak Hill Advisors. The move comes days after K.K.R. Financial warned of investment losses of as much as $290 million because of “unprecedented disruptions” in the residential-mortgage market.

Countrywide Financial, which tapped a $15 billion credit line last week, has begun laying off workers involved in originating loans, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an internal email.

Another lender, Thornburg Mortgage, said it had sold $20.5 billion of mortgage-backed securities at a discount and terminated $41.1 billion of interest-rate hedging instruments.

“The company took these actions to address challenges in meeting its liquidity and financing needs caused by rapidly declining mortgage securities prices and simultaneous declines in the value of its hedging instruments,” Thornburg Mortgage said.

A mortgage investor, Luminent Mortgage Capital, meanwhile, has agreed to sell a majority of itself to Arco Capital.

Stocks ended the day mixed. The biggest action was in Treasury bills, where prices surged, driving yields sharply lower.


Related Links:

• Financial Times: Flight to Safety Hits Treasury Bill Yields
• Nouriel Roubini’s Blog: Friday’s Fed Action Is Not Easing the Liquidity and Credit Crunch: Investors’ Risk Aversion Is In Full Swing