J.P. Morgan to Settle Mortgage-Securities Case

``J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay $153.6 million to settle charges it misled investors in a portfolio of complex securities tied to the housing market just as the sector was beginning to crumble... The Securities and Exchange Commission said J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, a unit of the bank, failed to disclose to investors in the portfolio--a $1.1 billion synthetic collateralized debt obligation--in early 2007 that Illinois-based hedge fund Magnetar helped pick the assets underpinning the CDO portfolio and stood to profit if they defaulted... ''