Mortgage mogul Fannie Mae (FNM: sentiment, chart, options) stepped into the earnings confessional this morning, reporting a first-quarter loss of $2.2 billion, or $2.57 per share; analysts, on average, predicted a loss of 81 cents per share. The company blamed the wider-than-expected loss on credit-related expenses and "challenging market conditions," one week after FNM's CEO, Daniel Mudd, predicted the U.S. housing market wouldn't fully recover before 2010. The lender also announced it would cut its dividend to 25 cents per share beginning in the third quarter.

Fannie Mae did, however, state it's planning on raising $6 billion in new capital in order to enable the company to "maintain a strong, conservative balance sheet, enhance long-term shareholder value, and provide stability to the secondary mortgage market," MarketWatch reported.

Technically speaking, the shares of FNM have receded roughly 60% since hitting an annual high near $70 in August 2006. The stock is now consolidated between its 10-week and 20-week trendlines, closing Monday at $28.29. In pre-market activity, the shares are set to open lower, at one point dropping as much as 13%.

Heading into today's earnings report, near-term options players were increasingly skeptical. The stock's SOIR jumped from a reading of 1.13 on May 1, to its current reading of 1.20. Over the past 52 weeks, near-term options speculators have been more bearish only 32% - or roughly one-third of the time.