Bangkok--2 Sep--Standard & Poor's
U.S. nonfinancial credit quality has noticeably deteriorated over the past 12 months. As we would expect, speculative-grade-rated issuers have been more susceptible to downgrades than their investment-grade-rated counterparts, and negative bias is at historically high levels, said an article published today by Standard & Poor's, titled "U.S. Nonfinancial Industries Credit Quality Review: August 2009 (Premium)."
However, an overview of monthly trends shows that the worst might have already passed. Nonfinancial downgrades and negative bias appear to have hit their peaks in March 2009, and both have been declining since then.
"The pace of nonfinancial downgrades has slowed over the past five months, though downgrades have totaled 835 in the past 12 months," said Diane Vazza, head of Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research Group. "Unsurprisingly, speculative-grade-rated issuers have seen the most downgrades, at 741, while investment-grade-rated companies have had 94."
Nonfinancial upgrades have been relatively sparse over the past 12 months, at only 112. During this time frame, there were 19 investment-grade upgrades and 93 speculative-grade upgrades. However, upgrades have started to pick up, with Standard & Poor's raising its ratings on 56 entities since the end of March.
This article is part of our premium Global Fixed Income Research content, which is available to premium subscribers to RatingsDirect, at www.ratingsdirect.com. Ratings information can also be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Ratings in the left navigation bar, select Find a Rating. Members of the media may request a copy of this report by contacting the media representative provided.
Media Contact:
Mimi Barker, New York (1) 212-438-5054, [email protected]
Analyst Contact:
Diane Vazza, New York (1) 212-438-2760