Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter

NEWS ABOUT: Standard and Poor

Standard and Poor stories: 20 news summaries

(Newser) - The credit crunch is starting to hit even top-tier universities, the Wall Street Journal reports. Both Moody’s and S&P stripped Dartmouth of its AAA rating this week. It’s the 20th college Moody’s has downgraded this year. “That’s comparable to the rate of downgrades... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Ivy League • college • Standard and Poor • Moody's • endowment • Triple-A credit rating • credit rating

Rating Agency Again Judges USA AAA

Uncle Sam's debt holds steady despite 'negative pressure'

May 27, 09 11:28 AM CDT
(Newser) - Moody’s today reassured investors that the United States government won’t lose its AAA credit rating…yet. Last week Standard & Poor warned that it might soon drop Britain’s debt rating, sparking panic that other governments could follow. A Moody’s VP said the US’ rating is the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
United States • Standard and Poor • Moody's • Triple-A credit rating • credit rating • ratings agencies

MARKETS

 Dow Worries Its Way Down 130 


May 21, 09 3:13 PM CDT
(Newser) - Markets were off today on news that credit raters might downgrade England and other countries, the Wall Street Journal reports. Though oil remained stable, the stocks of construction-related firms like Home Depot, Caterpillar, and Alcoa plunged; the price of gold surged. The Dow was off 129.91 to 8,292.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
stock market • NASDAQ • Dow Jones • construction • England • Standard and Poor • S&P 500 • housing sector • credit rating

MARKET open

 Stocks Plummet on 
 UK's Credit Woes 


May 21, 09 8:49 AM CDT
(Newser) - Stocks plummeted at today’s open after Standard & Poor’s warned it might downgrade the UK’s credit rating, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Dow tumbled 126 points, while the Nasdaq and S&P each fell more than 1%. Investors now fear other major economies, including the US,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
stock market • United Kingdom • Dow Jones • Nasdaq • Standard and Poor • S&P 500 • credit rating • financial crisis

(Newser) - Until the day Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, all three of the major credit-ratings agencies swore its debt was safe, rating it A or better. They rated AIG at AA. And they gave 75% of the $3.2 trillion of subprime mortgage securities iron-clad AAA ratings. Moody’s, S&P and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
subprime mortgages • Lehman Brothers • AIG • mortgage backed securities • Standard and Poor • Moody's • Triple-A credit rating • credit rating • ratings agencies • Fitch Ratings

 Shopping Mall Giant 
 Goes Bankrupt 

Second-largest U.S. mall owner can't refinance billions in debt

Apr 16, 09 7:08 AM CDT
(Newser) - Chicago-based General Growth Properties, the second-largest US shopping mall owner, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today after attempts to refinance more than $27 billion in debt failed, Bloomberg reports. The owner of more than 200 shopping malls owes a unit of Germany’s Commerzbank $2.6 billion, while bondholders are... More »

MORE ABOUT:
bankruptcy • debt • bonds • mall • Standard and Poor • Chapter 11 • Commerzbank

(AP) - US home prices sank by 19% in January, the sharpest annual rate on record, and the pace continues to accelerate, the AP reports, but there were a handful of battered metro areas where price declines slowed, according to data released today. The tumble taken by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index... More »

MORE ABOUT:
housing market • home prices • Standard and Poor • Case Shiller price index

Disgraced Credit Raters
See Windfall in Fed Plan

Moody's, S&P could earn big rating Fed bond deals

Mar 20, 09 10:49 AM CDT
(Newser) - Credit-rating companies faulted for their role in creating the financial crisis could rake in more than $1 billion in Ben Bernanke’s new plan to prop up the financial system, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Fed is planning $7 billion worth of bond deals, and they'll need the approval... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Ben Bernanke • Federal Reserve • bonds • Standard and Poor • Moody's • credit rating

 Investors Flee GE 
 Despite Soaring Profits 

Fears about GE's capital arm and a possible loss of AAA rating stoke concerns

Mar 5, 09 7:00 AM CST
(Newser) - General Electric, long considered a reliable growth company paying an attractive dividend, is taking a beating ahead of a possible cut to its AAA debt rating, Bloomberg reports. Though GE recently posted its third-highest annual profit ever, the company has lost $264 billion in market value in 12 months and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
General Electric • Standard and Poor • Moody's • Jeffrey Immelt • bond ratings • dividend

MARKETS

 Eye on Banks, Stocks Sink Early 

Dow drops 30 points after bell

Feb 25, 09 8:50 AM CST
(Newser) - Stocks sank after the opening bell this morning, with traders’ eyes still on troubled banks, which face regulators’ stress tests starting today, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Dow quickly plunged 30 points; the S&P slipped 0.5% with a 2.2% drop in financials; and the Nasdaq tumbled... More »

MORE ABOUT:
stock market • Dow Jones • Nasdaq • Standard and Poor • banking • financial sector • financial crisis

Home Prices Post Record 4th-Quarter Decline

Dropped 18.2% during quarter compared to year ago

Feb 24, 09 8:56 AM CST
(AP) - Home prices tumbled by the sharpest year-over-year rate on record in the fourth quarter and in December, a widely-watched index shows. The S&P/Case-Shiller US home price index plunged 18.2% from the fourth quarter a year ago, the largest drop in its 21-year history. Prices are now at the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
housing market • home prices • Standard and Poor • Case Shiller price index

OPINION

25 People Responsible
for the Crisis

Greenspan, King, and Clinton all played a role, the Guardian writes

Jan 26, 09 3:25 PM CST
(Newser) - The current recession is a wholly man-made phenomenon, the Guardian reminds us, and they’ve got the names of those responsible. Here are four from their list of 25:
  • Alan Greenspan: Fed chair for 19 years, Greenspan kept interest rates low as the housing bubble developed, backed subprime lending
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bill Clinton • Alan Greenspan • credit market • Bank of England • Standard and Poor • Mervyn King • George W. Bush • Phil Gramm • financial crisis • recession depression

MARKET OPEN

 Stocks Begin 
 Holiday Week Mixed 

Fed cuts, auto loan offer boost

Dec 22, 08 9:17 AM CST
(Newser) - Stocks opened mixed today after China cut interest rates and Toyota predicted its first loss in 71 years, the Wall Street Journal reports. Toyota’s US shares dropped 3% after its bleak forecast, and General Motors (16%) and Ford (7%) both fell. The Dow ticked up after the bell but... More »

MORE ABOUT:
China • Wall Street • Toyota • Dow Jones • markets • Standard and Poor • interest rate cut

 Russia's Credit Rating Lowered 

Putin in trouble

Dec 9, 08 1:59 PM CST
(Newser) - The plummeting ruble might just bankrupt Russia, the Financial Times reports. Standard and Poor’s has dropped the G8 member’s credit rating from BBB+ to the lowly BBB, warning that the country may have to spend all $200 billion in its sovereign wealth funds to recapitalize the banking... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Russia • currency • Standard and Poor • foreign currency • credit rating • financial crisis

As Stocks Tank, Campbell's Proves Hearty

Soup giant was the
only S&P 500 company to see rise

Sep 30, 08 2:26 AM CDT
(Newser) - As investors stampeded to sell stocks as confidence plunged yesterday, lonely cans of Campbell's soup stood supreme. By the time the dust cleared, Campbell's was the only one of 500 firms in the Standard & Poor's index whose stocks rose, Reuters reports. The soup's shares jumped 12 cents. Some analysts... More »

MORE ABOUT:
stock market • Campbell • Standard and Poor • Campbell's Soup • stock index

 Feds Search for WaMu Buyer 

Falling share price stokes worries of a bank run

Sep 17, 08 1:06 PM CDT
(Newser) - Washington Mutual, America's largest savings and loan, may be the next big financial institution to fail, the New York Post reports. Fearing a run on the struggling bank, federal regulators placed calls yesterday gauging interest in a WaMu buyout to Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, and others, but no... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Wells Fargo • credit crisis • Washington Mutual • mortgage backed securities • Standard and Poor • savings • bank failure • JPMorgan Chase

MARKETS

 On Mixed News, Modest Gains 

Crude falls, durable goods rise, but foreclosures also climb

Jul 25, 08 3:33 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Dow and S&P 500 seesawed to minor gains today amid mixed economic reports, MarketWatch reports. The Dow rose 21.41 to 11,370.69, the S&P 500 5.22 to 1,257.76. Bolstered by the relative insulation from the economic slump enjoyed by tech stocks , the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Dow Jones • General Motors • durable goods • Nasdaq • Freddie Mac • Fannie Mae • crude oil • Standard and Poor • tech stocks • S&P 500 • Amazon.com

MARKETS

 Financials Key Downward Spiral 

Executive shuffles at WaMu, Wachovia give market jitters

Jun 2, 08 3:38 PM CDT
(Newser) - Financials keyed major market losses as high-level personnel shuffles at Wachovia and Washington Mutual, plus a report by Standard and Poor that downgraded the ratings of several prominent banks, disconcerted investors, MarketWatch notes. The Dow lost 134.50 to settle at 12,503.82, and the Nasdaq lost 31.13,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Dow Jones • Wachovia • Merrill Lynch • Nasdaq • credit crisis • Washington Mutual • Standard and Poor • WaMu • S&P 500

Goldman Sachs Switches Forecasters

'Belle of the bull market' Cohen has more pessimistic successor

Mar 18, 08 6:39 AM CDT
(Newser) - Goldman Sachs has replaced its famously bullish chief forecaster, Abby Joseph Cohen,  with a less upbeat analyst, Bloomberg reports. Cohen will remain as senior investment strategist, handing over the daily predictions to David Kostin. Kostin sees a decline for the S&P 500 to 1160 in the short run,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Goldman Sachs • financial markets • recession • markets • bear market • bull market • Standard and Poor

MARKETS

Retail Leads Black Friday Rally

Wal-Mart, Target, JC Penney all gain; Citigroup rebounds

Nov 23, 07 2:34 PM CST
(Newser) - Stocks rose in an abbreviated session today, cutting losses for the week as early-bird Christmas shopping gave reason for optimism. "The fact that Black Friday is not a disaster and is off to a modest but healthy start is just a relief,'' one analyst told Bloomberg. The Dow... More »

MORE ABOUT:
stock market • NASDAQ • JCPenney • Dow Jones • Standard and Poor • Target • holiday shopping • Black Friday • Wal-Mart

20 Stories


from our news partners