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Banking, finance, and taxes

S&P Lives Up To Downgrades Of France, Austria, Italy, Spain, & Portugal

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By Jon C. Ogg Updated Published
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Standard & Poor’s managed to live up to the rumor mill’s expectations on this Friday the 13th.  S&P has now formally downgraded several European nations’ sovereign credit ratings. France and Austria have both lost their prized Triple-A rating from S&P, and the new inbvestment-grade ratings are both at AA+.  Elsewhere, the PIIGS got their share of cuts again.  S&P handed out downgrades to the nations:

  • Spain is “A” rated
  • Italy is now rated BBB+
  • Portugal was downgraded to Junk with a “BB” rating

It was back in early December that S&P put these nations on CreditWatch Negative. This news was telegraphed throughout the trading day and was largely responsible for the market sell-off today.

JON C. OGG

Photo of Jon C. Ogg
About the Author Jon C. Ogg →

Jon Ogg has been a financial news analyst since 1997. Mr. Ogg set up one of the first audio squawk box services for traders called TTN, which he sold in 2003. He has previously worked as a licensed broker to some of the top U.S. and E.U. financial institutions, managed capital, and has raised private capital at the seed and venture stage. He has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as New York and Chicago, and he now lives in Houston, Texas. Jon received a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance at University of Houston in 1992. a673b.bigscoots-temp.com.

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