S&P's CreditWeek - January 30, 2008
Standard & Poor's Credit And Equity Analysts Review The State Of Corporate Governance: In the current climate of uncertainty in the financial markets, corporate governance is more important than ever, for both shareholders and creditors. To get a deeper insight into the current state of corporate governance against the backdrop of ongoing market disruptions, a Standard & Poor's panel recently discussed these issues.
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S&P's CreditWeek - January 23, 2008
After The Credit Boom, Banks And Brokers Face A Sobering Year In 2008: The projected economic slowdown will intensify the pressure on the banking industry in 2008. Earnings of banks and brokers likely will continue on the weakening trend that started in the second half of 2007, particularly in the U.S. Lower business flows from housing finance and fixed-income origination and trading will limit revenues, while higher risk premiums on funding and rising provisions f...
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S&P's CreditWeek - January 16, 2008
For Leveraged Debt, Investors Go From Credit Amnesia To Credit Obsession: Since July, the leveraged debt markets reversed with a rapidity reminiscent of earlier about-faces in the market cycle. Borrowing costs surged for new leveraged loans and the level of secondary-market pricing jumped sharply. With a sharp upward repricing of leveraged credit risk, the market has begun to anticipate a rise in default rates. And while the future is hard to predict, we see the mar...
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S&P's CreditWeek - January 9, 2008
Where The Credit Markets And U.S. Economy May Be Heading In 2008: The answers vary by sector, and the prospects for credit ratings aren't necessarily dire, but a consensus of Standard & Poor's U.S. managing directors determined that, except perhaps for sovereigns, at least the first half of the year ahead looks pretty thorny for borrowers, lenders, issuers, and investors in fixed-income securities. Prognostication is not a science, of course. And as 2007 showed,...
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S&P's CreditWeek - December 26, 2007
S&P Takes Rating Actions On Six Bond Insurers: On Dec. 19, 2007, Standard & Poor's announced various ratings actions on six financial guaranty insurance companies. The rating actions were prompted by worsening expectations for the performance of insured nonprime residential mortgage backed securities and CDOs of asset backed securities.
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S&P's CreditWeek - December 12, 2007
For North American Insurers In 2008, Discipline Will Be The Key To Success: Standard & Poor's outlook for the North American life, health, property/casualty insurance, and reinsurance sectors is stable due to several years of strong earnings, improved levels of capital adequacy, ample liquidity, and strong balance sheets. However, the number of ratings raised over the next six months is expected to be offset by the number of ratings lowered.
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S&P's CreditWeek - December 5, 2007
Can Not-For-Profit Power Companies Juice Up Their Environmental Standing? The search for environmentally friendly generation boils down to a simple choice: coal versus the other technologies. There are a growing number of ways to mitigate coal's environmental impact, including scrubbers, integrated gasification combined-cycle generators, and carbon capture and sequestration technology. These range in effectiveness from protective to almost wholly experimental.
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S&P's CreditWeek - November 28, 2007
Russia: Renewal Or Regression?: It's now Russia's financial account (principally foreign borrowing by the private sector) that's driving accumulation of foreign reserves. And it's Russia's financial, rather than energy, sector that's the engine of growth. But we're concerned about future efficient allocation of investment resources.
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S&P's CreditWeek - November 14, 2007
U.S. Consumers Are Likely To Drop Their Shopping In 2008: American consumers continue to spend at a steady rate, showing an amazing ability to ignore higher oil prices and lower home prices. However, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services expects that the squeeze of higher mortgage payments and rising energy expenses will slow consumer spending next year. The wave of delinquencies in the housing sector should also dampen consumer confidence and outlays.
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S&P's CreditWeek - November 7, 2007
A High Concentration Of LBOs And Leveraged Deals-23 Over Seven Years-Could Add Pressure To Chemical Sector Ratings
By Kyle Loughlin, New York
Fortunately, a boom in LBO activity coincided with good economic conditions and peak chemical cycle operating results. As a result, despite the high number of leveraged issuers in the chemicals sector, Standard & Poor's considers few issuers vulnerable to default.
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S&P's CreditWeek - October 31, 2007
Creditworthiness Of U.S. Banks Does Not Hinge On Their Adopting "Super-SIV": The market stresses that began this past summer have pressured SIVs, which investors perceive to be invested in mortgage-related securities. Marketplace concerns persist that SIVs may not be able to continue rolling their short-term debt and consequently will be forced to liquidate their portfolios, putting further selling pressure on the securities markets.
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S&P's CreditWeek - October 24, 2007
Leverage-Not Politics-Is The Biggest Issue For Corporate Health Care Credit Strength: U.S. health care expenditures could double over the next 10 years, as the medically needy, over-65 age group grows to about 16% of the population. Ironically, companies' desire to capitalize on this expanding market has been responsible for most of the corporate health care deterioration over the past few years.
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S&P's CreditWeek - October 17, 2007
Will Emerging Markets Remain Immune To U.S. Credit Woes?
By David Wyss, Chief Economist, New York
Emerging markets today show far more resistance to credit market volatility than during previous crises because of the steady stream of capital inflows-attracted by high growth along with improved corporate governance standards. But enormous international imbalances could still cause problems for the emerging and developed markets.
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S&P's CreditWeek - October 10, 2007
The World Of $80 Oil: How The Economy And Industries Cope: The price of crude oil has been on quite a roller coaster ride, with costs ranging from $50 to $83 per barrel during 2007. Although worldwide demand, especially from China and India, is bound to keep the price of crude oil and natural gas relatively high over the long term, spikes and dips will undoubtedly occur. It looks like volatile energy prices are here to stay for a while.
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S&P's CreditWeek - October 3, 2007
Strong Fundamentals And Central Banks Should See Financial Institutions Through Rough Markets: After a two-year binge of aggressive credit expansion and loosening underwriting standards, the credit markets abruptly changed direction during the past summer. Deepening worries about the U.S. subprime mortgage and leveraged loan markets triggered a reversal in U.S. market sentiment that quickly spread to Europe and parts of Asia. Although uncertainty abounds, Standard &...
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S&P's CreditWeek: September 26, 2007
U.S. Economic Forecast: Another Panic Of '07? The financial markets are going through some turmoil that began in the subprime mortgage market. However, the chaos extends far beyond that to a general crisis of investor confidence. Standard & Poor's still expects the economy to avoid recession, but the slowdown now seems likely to be more prolonged than originally thought and the Fed will have less room for error.
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S&P's CreditWeek: September 19, 2007
Strong Fundamentals And Central Banks Should See Financial Institutions Through Rough Markets:
After a two-year binge of aggressive credit expansion and loosening underwriting standards, the credit markets abruptly changed direction during the past summer. Deepening worries about the U.S. subprime mortgage and leveraged loan markets triggered a reversal in U.S. market sentiment that quickly spread to Europe and parts of Asia. Although uncertainty abounds, Standard &...
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S&P's CreditWeek: September 5, 2007
The Fundamentals Of Structured Finance Ratings: The complexity of the structured finance rating system has many people concerned. Since these securities have become an important tool in financial markets, investors need to know the particulars and methods for determining these ratings. Constant scrutiny is a mainstay of this process and the interaction between ratings agencies and arrangers is considered a pre-requisite for a healthy market.
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S&P's CreditWeek: August 29, 2007
U.S. Presidential Politics And Managed Care; What's At Stake For The Industry This Time Around: The upcoming 2008 presidential election will have a huge impact on the health care industry. The amount of older U.S. citizens and uninsured individuals continues to rise, along with health care costs. The next president will have a big part in determining whether new policies for
managed care will prove friendly to the industry or hostile.
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S&P's CreditWeek: August 22, 2007
The U.S. Economy Is Ailing, But It's Still Only A Mild Cold
It appears the U.S. economy is going through a tough time but, despite a weak housing market, the outlook for the future remains solid. The trade deficit is shrinking, inflation and interest rates are stable, and the consumer continues to spend. However, there still might be some roadblocks ahead, including rising oil prices or a possible increase in bond yields.
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S&P's CreditWeek: August 15, 2007
Recent Global External Payment Trends: Money Makes The World Go Around: Fast growth, huge current account imbalances, low real interest rates and risk spreads, subdued inflation, and easy access to finance characterize the world economy. The balance of payments clearly illustrates one of the main paradoxes of global financial flows since the beginning of this decade, namely the substantial net flow of capital to industrialized countries, mostly to the U.S. ...
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S&P's CreditWeek: August 8, 2007
Leveraged Finance Market Jitters Highlight Risks To Banks: The weakness in the leveraged finance market in the past few weeks emphasizes the risks faced by banks that underwrite and invest in these assets. This article discusses recent market developments and reports on simple stress tests conducted to illustrate the effects of a severe, but plausible, downturn scenario.
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S&P's CreditWeek: August 1, 2007
The Road to Convergence: U.S. GAAP At The Crossroads: U.S. and international accounting standards have long been separate entities but the push is on for a convergence into a single, global reporting system. This process faces many questions and potential hurdles but standard-setters believe the idea is close to being a reality. U.S. GAAP may soon become a distant memory as financial reporting is unified throughout all countries.
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S&P's CreditWeek: July 25, 2007
Hedge Funds Find That Growth Opens Doors to New Financing Options:
Standard & Poor's believes that greater size leads to expanded funding options for hedge funds. New funding methods mean a more diverse group of investors. Have hedge funds become the attractive option for the "average Joe"? Current trends say yes.
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S&P's CreditWeek: July 18, 2007
Various U.S. First-Lien Subprime RMBS Classes Downgraded :
On July 12, 2007, Standard & Poor's addressed the July 10, 2007,
CreditWatch actions on 612 U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) backed by U.S. first-lien subprime mortgage collateral rated from the fourth quarter of 2005 through the fourth quarter of 2006. Standard & Poor's also addressed the CreditWatch actions taken before July 10, 2007, involving 70 classes of RMBS backed by first...
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S&P's CreditWeek: July 4, 2007
Basel II Creates AnArray Of Possibilities For Global ABCP:
Changing regulatory capital regimes and capital charges on liquidity provided to asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) have led to a proliferation of conduit structures that minimize third-party liquidity costs. Issuance of extendible notes using the collateral's market value as well as the securitized assets' cash flow has accelerated considerably as we get closer to full implementation of the Basel II Cap...
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S&P's CreditWeek - June 20, 2007
Russian Electric Utility Reform:
Generating Energy-And Risk
Will the transition from a state-owned, marginally profitable industry to acompetitive, private sector-based one go smoothly? Probably not.Nowhere else has power restructuring followed the script. Will Russia learn from other countries' experiences in the past 17 years? Probably so.
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S&P's CreditWeek - June 20, 2007
After A Record 2006, Can U.S. Insurers Maintain Their Discipline?
For the insurance industry as a whole, 2006's results were the highest in this decade. According to the Insurance Services Office, U.S. property/casualty insurers' net income was $63.7 billion for 2006, a 44.3% increase from 2005's catastrophe-laden results. Few disasters in 2006 and strong price increases from prior years let the industry catch the perfect wave in 2006 and achieve record profits.
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S&P's CreditWeek - June 13, 2007
The Leveraging Of America: A Rising Tide Of Riskier Credit: You don't have to look too far to see that credit risk has been rising over the past few years. LBOs, dividend recaps, more aggressive financial policies, investors hungry for yield, and cheap money have made the credit landscape more challenging than ever before. Declining credit quality is nothing new, as credit ratings have been falling for more than two decades, but over the past three years, the slid...
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S&P's CreditWeek: May 30, 2007
Credit FAQ: Favorable Credit Environment Fuels Asia's High-Yield Bond Markets: High-yield bond issuance was virtually nonexistent in the first quarter of 2007, but things have picked up again in the second quarter and Standard & Poor's expects about US$7 billion in rated high-yield issuance in Asia this year. However, keep in mind that the high-yield market is extremely volatile and can quickly close down following an unexpected credit event, such as a major do...
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S&P's CreditWeek: May 23, 2007
The Cost Of Keeping Our Cool: Global Warming And The Economy: The planet's environment is going through an epochal upheaval in weather patterns. So what might this mean for economic growth? Clearly, the costs of controlling carbon emissions remain highly uncertain, primarily because of the technological variables. Still, as the technologies become better defined, the range of cost estimates is narrowing, and now at least some reasonable projections are becoming ava...
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S&P's CreditWeek: May 16, 2007
Global Growth Has Metals Prices Gleaming: The global economy keeps chugging ahead, and with it so does demand for nickel, copper, iron ore, bauxite, and other metals. The combination of strong demand and weak supply has strengthened the credit quality of mining and metal companies around the world, and Standard & Poor's doesn't foresee any quick changes in either of these fundamentals.
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S&P's CreditWeek: May 9, 2007
Despite Risks, Global Public-Private Partnership Deals Are On The Upswing: Governments around the globe have struggled to deliver important public infrastructure investments, as well as control costs without reducing services. To meet growing fiscal demands, governments are increasingly interested in forming public-private partnerships (PPPs) to improve service levels, control costs, and provide the social and physical infrastructure required by growing populations...
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S&P's CreditWeek: May 2, 2007
Chief Drivers Behind Islamic Finance's Global Expansion: Mounting demand around the world for Sharia-compliant financial products and services is fueling the Islamic banking industry's buoyant expansion. More and more banking clients are choosing to invest in an ever-broader range of Islamic financial instruments available through long-established Islamic banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council states and Muslim Asia.
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S&P's CreditWeek: April 25, 2007
For The U.S. Housing Slump, The Bottom May Be In Sight: Like grief, a housing downturn is a multi-stage process. The housing market appears to be just entering Stage 3 (acceptance), which will probably continue for the rest of 2007. Sales will stabilize, but home prices will continue to drop until the market finishes that stage and the excess inventory is sold.
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S&P's CreditWeek: April 13, 2007
Standard & Poor's Weighs In On The U.S. Subprime Mortgage Market: The consequences of the U.S. housing market's excesses, a topic of speculation for the past couple of years, finally have begun to surface. It will take many months for the forces set in motion by the subprime decline to run their course, and for the ultimate impact to become obvious. Thus, today's prediction could become tomorrow's missed estimate.
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S&P's CreditWeek: April 11, 2007
Beyond BRIC: Growth Is Busting Out All Over: Standard & Poor's expects emerging markets and not just the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) to keep growing faster than developed economies, especially in terms of total GDP. But trade imbalances are endangering the world financial system.
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S&P's CreditWeek: April 4, 2007
For Global Automakers, The World Is Flat-Except In Asia: A tour of today's global auto market is hardly the stuff of a sunny afternoon cruise with the top down. Instead, carmakers find themselves forced to contend with a host of hazardous road conditions, ranging from uncertain economic prospects in major markets to fuel prices that look like they want to go only upward.
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S&P's CreditWeek: March 28, 2007
U.S. Not-For-Profit Health Care Rating Trends Seen Stable Despite Pressures: The same forces that drove improved performance for so many credits beginning in 2004 contributed to the favorable performance trends and rating stability in 2006, and should continue in 2007 and 2008. Standard & Poor's also has a reasonable expectation that 2008 will demonstrate generally stable credit trends, despite rising legislative risk and incremental sector pressure.
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S&P's CreditWeek: March 21, 2007
Opportunities Abound For The North American Midstream Energy Sector: After years of underappreciation and underinvestment by parent companies, the pipeline segment is in the midst of a building boom for infrastructure projects throughout North America. The need to get natural gas to east from west is the main force behind this. A range of projects is on the drawing board, including a massive pipeline that would move gas from Alaska's North Slope, with cost estimate...
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