a few hours later...JPMorgan, New York Fed Agree to Fund Bear Stearns

March 14 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the New York Federal Reserve agreed to provide funding to Bear Stearns Cos. as the securities firm said its cash position has ``significantly deteriorated.''

The New York Fed will ``provide non-recourse, back-to- back'' financing for up to 28 days, JPMorgan said in a statement today. Bear Stearns fell $2.67, or 4.7 percent, to $54.33 at 9:37 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares are down almost 40 percent this year.

``Bear Stearns has been the subject of a multitude of market rumors regarding our liquidity,'' Chief Executive Officer Alan Schwartz said today in a separate statement. ``We have tried to confront and dispel these rumors and parse fact from fiction. Nevertheless, amidst this market chatter, our liquidity position in the last 24 hours had significantly deteriorated.''

Bear Stearns had denied this week that it faced a cash shortage, saying the company's ``liquidity cushion'' is sufficient to weather the credit-market contraction.