Investors fired a broadside today at the shenanigans surrounding Washington’s debt negotiations, killing a Wall Street rally over what should have been anticipated news that Moody’s rating service would lower the U.S. AAA credit rating if a deal is not reached.
Moody’s officially joined the Standard & Poor’s credit rating service in warning Congress and the White House that they need to do a deal, or else the U.S. could find itself in another financial crisis like the one that crippled markets and wiped out fortunes and 401ks in the summer of 2008.
Moody’s disclosure that it would put the U.S. “under review” had been expected, yet with the financial markets so volatile it was enough to kill a rally on Wall Street and send the dollar and 10-year Treasury note downward. The U.S. stock exchanges mostly ended on a positive note, but they still pulled back in the final hour of trading on the Moody’s news.
Read more at the Baz File.