In this Issue: • A Speculative-Grade World: The U.S. corporate bond market crossed the threshold
to junk-bond status in the second quarter. •Intelligencer: Headlines, Highlights, and What's on Our Minds •The Observatory •Rising & Falling Stars •IS M&A LOSING ITS WIDENING CREDIT SPREADS ARE MAKING SOME DEALS MORE EXPEN$IVE •Credit Pinch: Some investment banks will feel more pain than others. •Uncertainty Spreads: We advise a wait-and-see approach with most of the specialty-finance REITs. • Banks Battered: Concerns about widening credit spreads are pressuring large bank stocks. • Acing the Buffett Test: These stocks might satisfy the "Oracle of Omaha." • Altria: We like the company's decision to move manufacturing to Europe. • S&P's Platinum Portfolio: This portfolio offers the best of both worlds: S&P's STARS ranking system, based on fundamental analysis, and Fair Value, S&P's proprietary quantitative model. Some of the Companies featured:
Abercrombie & Fitch
Alcon
BJ Services
Cisco Systems
Citrix Systems
Ericsson
Garmin
Harris
Marsh & McLennan
Novartis
Oracle
PepsiCo
Trinity Industries
U.S. Steel
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