Amid the heat of battle, Fitch entered the scene announcing it was placing Southern Union on rating watch negative given uncertainty over its future corporate structure.
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The packages have not been sufficient to calm the markets or stop the rot from spreading: 2010 ended with Fitch downgrading Portugal and putting Greece on negative rating watch.
Among them were Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and BNP Paribas. (Read Fitch Places Seven Big Banks On Rating Watch).
FORBES: S&P Axes Spain's Credit Rating On Heightened Risks To Growth
The Fitch ratings agency warned that if Greece did leave the euro, it would probably place all 16 remaining euro nations' sovereign ratings on "rating watch negative" - meaning they would be in danger of being downgraded.
BBC: Greece bailout crisis: President seeks unity government
Fitch, the ratings agency, helpfully made the chancellor's point for him last week when it put the UK's AAA rating on negative watch.
India has been pressing for a rating upgrade on the back of the several reform measures that the government has taken since September to revive investments and growth and to rein in its fiscal deficit, which has been under watch by rating agencies.
Run up spending and debt, raise taxes in the naming of balancing the budget, but then watch as deficits rise and your credit-rating falls anyway.
Prior to Sarbanes-Oxley, researchers at Cornell and Dartmouth universities found that analysts affiliated with the underwriting bank issued buy ratings to prop up dropping stocks, only to watch the stocks drop further after the buy rating was issued.
And watch out for Goldman, which demonstrated with their Neutral rating on Yandex today that they are willing to go against the grain.
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For this Seafood Watch gives monkfish its lowest, "red" rating.
Ben Critchley, a sales trader at IG Index, said investors would be keeping a close watch on the Congressional testimony of senior staff members of credit rating agencies in Washington on Wednesday.
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So I watch and buy the game so that I can find out what my rating is.
And while Fitch says the rest of the UK would keep its triple-A rating intact, it adds that the problems in the UK economy put it on negative watch - that is, at risk of a downgrade.
Rather tight, perhaps, especially since the company was this week put on negative watch by Moody's (the agency that boosted Russia's sovereign debt rating to investment grade three weeks ago).
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