ratings agencies

A U.S. downgrade is, in itself, almost meaningless. A nation that issues debt denominated solely in its own currency and which is in full control of its monetary policy, cannot default unwillingly. Nations default because they run out of…

With the US downgrade now out of the way, we think market attention will swing back to other Developed Markets countries that are facing downward pressure on ratings too. Here is a summary of our most recent ratings outlooks for Developed…

Sentiment remains poor after S&P downgrade; equities; safe haven trades to remain in vogue. Euro zone to remain under pressure despite ECB purchases of Italian and Spanish bonds. G7, G20, EU, and ECB weekend meetings have done little…

Standard and Poor’s downgraded U.S. creditworthiness to AA+, becoming the first to remove the triple-A status from the world’s largest economy and largest debtor. Moreover, a negative outlook has been retained. The element of surprise…

Do I think this is a big deal? No. This move had been telegraphed for weeks. Moreover, the prospect of a double dip recession and a potential lost decade of debt deflation in the US is infinitely more important. The recent rally in Treasury…

All eyes on US jobs data today, FOMC meeting next week. Euro zone periphery remains under pressure as ECB said to buy bonds; data softer than expected. Global equity markets are lower as growth risks, sovereign risks persist; EM FX softer…

Patrick Chovanec talked to Bloomberg earlier today about the Chinese rating agency Dagong’s downgrade of US sovereign debt to Single-A. Chovanec says that Dagong is ‘hyper-senstive’ to US risk.

Here is some more color on the Fitch comments on the US. First headline to hit the tapes was that the “deal reached is commensurate with AAA rating.” However, the full statement is that “commensurate with its 'AAA' rating, the risk of…

The Hungarian government’s much publicised unorthodox plans to cut the country’s public debt level has been attracting a lot of attention of late, both from the media and from the rating agencies. Some observers have been quite positively…

CMA sources credit prices directly from the world’s largest and most active credit investors. Data from CMA show that the US leads the list amongst sovereign credit default swap wideners today.