I will be surprised if they do not try and rally stocks in the face of this to put the brave face on and whistle past the graveyard once again. This is what traders like to do when they have been caught offsides by the news. But they may not be able to sustain it without official help from the strong trading desks of the financial sector.
Forbes
S&P Goes On Downgrade Spree, Hits Most U.S. Banks
By Michael Aneiro
November 29, 2011, 5:04 PM ET
Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday afternoon grabbed its downgrade stick and went on a rampage, whacking just about every major financial institution in sight. Most big U.S. banks got hit, as did many European institutions. The downgrades were part of the rating agency’s application of its revised bank criteria to 37 of the largest rated banks. Here’s a partial list of the carnage:
Bank of America Corp. (BAC) to A- from A
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK) to A+ from AA-
Barclays PLC (BCS) to A from A+
Wells Fargo Bank N.A. (WFC) to AA- from AA
Citibank N.A. (C) to A from A+
Goldman Sachs & Co. (GS) to A from A+
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) to A from A+
Morgan Stanley (MS) to A- from A
Bloomberg
BofA, Goldman, Citi Credit Ratings Reduced by S&P
By Dakin Campbell and Hugh Son
Nov 29, 2011 5:14 PM ET
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) --Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Citigroup Inc. (C) had long-term credit grades reduced to A- from A by Standard & Poor’s after the ratings firm revised criteria for dozens of the largest global lenders.
Standard & Poor’s made the same cut to Morgan Stanley (MS) and Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch unit. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) was reduced one level to A from A+. S&P upgraded Bank of China Ltd. (3988) and China Construction Bank Corp. (939) to A from A- and maintained the A rating on Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., giving all three lenders higher grades than most big U.S. banks.
The moves may increase pressure on firms bracing for Europe’s mounting sovereign debt crisis and navigating economic weakness. Bank of America, which has plunged 62 percent this year in New York trading, said in a regulatory filing this month that it may have to post billions of dollars of additional collateral and termination payments on its trades if it were to be downgraded one level by rating companies.
“It’s evident that stress from the European banking system is taking its worldwide toll,” Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia, said in an e-mail.
S&P, a unit of New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos. (MHP), has been changing the way it looks at debt after its faulty grades contributed to the credit-market seizure that brought down Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. It started to review the methodology in December 2008, months after the collapse of those two firms.
`Adverse Impact'
Downgrades “could likely have a material adverse effect on our liquidity, potential loss of access to credit markets, the related cost of funds, our businesses and on certain trading revenues, particularly in those businesses where counterparty creditworthiness is critical,” Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America said in this month’s filing.
The company, which noted the risk of downgrades from S&P and Fitch Ratings in its third-quarter filing, previously said it has prepared by lining up funding for a year.
The following table shows firms that were downgraded by S&P, followed by a list of banks that were upgraded.
Downgraded:
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.
Bank of America Corp.
Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
Barclays Plc
Citigroup Inc.
Rabobank Nederland
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
HSBC Holdings Plc
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Lloyds Banking Group Plc
Morgan Stanley
Royal Bank of Scotland Plc
UBS AG
Wells Fargo & Co.
Upgraded:
Bank of China Ltd.
China Construction Bank Corp.
