Shares of Washington Mutual (WM) are down nearly 6% in pre-market trade after Keefe Bruyette downgraded the stock to Underperform from Market Perform.

In the three most recent analyst rating changes recoreded in our Analyst Notebook database, WM has seen its pre-market performance widen in the following regular session in two the three events.

12/13/07 Pre-Market: decline to 15.20; 12/13/07 Regular Session: -3% at 15.58 - Bank of America downgrade to Sell.

11/27/07 Pre-Market: modest gainer in pre-market: 11/27/07 Regular Session: +3% at 17.31 - Punk Ziegel raises rating to Market Perform from Sell.

10/18/07 Pre-Market: down in early session, less than reg. session; 10/18/07 Regular Session: -7.8% at 30.50 - Friedman Billings downgrades to Underperform from Market Perform.

Using history as a guide, traders should expect continued weakness in the regular session, adding to these pre-market losses.