When the Dow plunged last Tuesday, market watchers blamed worries about the viability of many subprime lenders.

Those are companies that specialized in providing mortgages to people who don't qualify for traditional home loans. Stocks of the subprime lenders tumbled, but many A-list names in banking also saw their shares decline.

Analysts said that the selloff in big banks wasn't justified.

"This is probably going to be less of an issue for large banks," said Avi Barak, an analyst who follows the group at Sandler, O'Neill & Partners.

Barak noted that most large banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, have well-diversified revenue streams and limited exposure to subprime loans.

Stocks of major financial services companies rebounded briefly, only to fall again later in the week when former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan spoke at an industry conference.

Greenspan indicated that he expects the high level of defaults in subprime mortgages to affect the broader economy if home prices decline, though he said he sees no spillover at this time.

Predictions from other analysts ran the gamut, with some fretting that the subprime meltdown could have broad implications, and others saying it had been largely contained.

The stocks of some subprime lenders rebounded sharply, including Accredited Home Lenders, which jumped 15% on Friday when it said it would sell some loans at a discount.