The Globe and Mail's headline here offers an optimistic assessment - CIBC offers hope worst is over:
Only a tiny proportion of this quarter's writedown came from the obvious culprit, U.S. subprime mortgage exposure, the issue that's caused CIBC massive headaches in recent quarters and was expected to do so again this quarter.
Still, they are a lucky exception. It always feels good to be hopeful, but if the economists of the US are to be believed, we are nowhere near out of the woods just yet. I hesitated to credit Greenspan's article as I thought it might be overly pessimistic re: global events, but his point on the housing market is more or less the same as everyone else's - mortgage lenders have no reason to stop sweating. In the meantime, as expected, housing starts are set to take a tumble - probably not at all a bad thing, as supply needs to be much lower before prices stabilize.
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