The former Countrywide Financial Corp. gave preferential loans to more than three dozen employees of Fannie Mae while the two giant housing enterprises were locked in an expanding, multibillion-dollar business relationship in subprime mortgages, documents show.

Discounted mortgages written by Countrywide, once the nation’s largest subprime lender, were granted to a far wider group of Fannie employees than the four top executives whose preferential loans were previously disclosed, according to Countrywide documents provided to Congress under a subpoena.

Countrywide’s VIP section, established to handle preferential mortgages for favored customers, serviced a variety of Fannie employees who handled Fannie’s business of buying mortgages and selling mortgage-backed bonds. Recipients included an account manager, a lobbyist, underwriters, lawyers, a home loan manager, a sales executive and a credit risk manager.

Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America in mid-2008.

J&J income up, but recalls dim forecast

Repeated recalls of popular Johnson & Johnson non-prescription medicines kept second-quarter revenue flat and forced J&J to cut its profit forecast, but a big drop in its tax rate enabled the health care giant to pull off a 7.5 percent increase in net income.

In a rare move, the maker of Band-Aids, birth control and biotech drugs on Tuesday reduced its 2010 profit forecast by 15 cents a share.

New Brunswick, N.J.-based J&J said its net income for the quarter was $3.45 billion, or $1.23 per share. That’s up from $3.21 billion, or $1.15 per share, a year earlier. The improvement was due to a $284 million drop in taxes paid for the quarter.

J&J is the parent company of Warsaw-based DePuy Orthopaedics.

Goldman profit slides after SEC settlement

Goldman Sachs had an 83 percent drop in second-quarter net income.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Tuesday its earnings fell to $453 million as trading revenue dropped during a dismal spring for the financial markets. The bank also booked a $550 million charge for its settlement of civil fraud charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission and took a $600 million charge because of a new tax on employee bonuses in Britain.

Apple net income jumps 78 percent

Apple Inc. blew past expectations when reporting results for its latest quarter Tuesday, and reported selling almost as many iPads as it sold Mac computers.

Apple said its fiscal third-quarter net income rose 78 percent, thanks to sales of its iPhone and the new iPad tablet computer.

Revenue for the April-to-June period rose 61 percent from last year to $15.7 billion, making it the company’s highest-revenue quarter ever.

Anthem exec quits after rate-hike fight

The president of Anthem Blue Cross in California announced her resignation Tuesday after the insurer’s attempted rate increase became President Obama’s poster child for out-of-control health care costs.

Leslie Margolin said Tuesday she is leaving the state’s largest for-profit insurer to lead Transforming Health Care, a coalition of providers, hospitals and consumer advocates.