Fitch Ratings | featured news

Fitch on Friday cut Spain's credit ratings by two notches, just a few minutes after downgrading Italy, saying the intensification of the euro zone debt crisis has had a negative impact in the entire region.

Fitch Ratings warned on Thursday that it might downgrade the credit rating of China within two years and there was a greater than even chance of a downgrade of Japan's credit status.

Fitch Ratings said Tuesday it will keep its rating on U.S. debt at the highest grade, AAA, and issued a "stable" outlook, meaning it expects the rating to stay there.

The United States had its triple-A rating confirmed by two key ratings agencies on Tuesday after Washington struck a last-minute deal to avoid a debt default, but threats of future downgrades remain.

Fitch Ratings said on Tuesday the agreement to raise the borrowing capacity of the United States means the risk of a sovereign default is "extremely low" and commensurate with a AAA rating.

Fitch Ratings on Wednesday downgraded Greece deeper into junk territory, citing the absence of a new and fully funded financing program for the country.

The United States probably wouldn't be able to maintain its prized AAA sovereign ratings status if it suffered even a "technical" default on its debt, Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday.

Ratings agency Fitch on Friday cut its outlook on Japan's sovereign debt, warning that the vast cost of a March earthquake and tsunami and the still-unknown bill for the clean-up after the nuclear disaster would further strain the country's already shaky public finances.

Regulators took new steps Wednesday to overhaul the firms whose rosy credit ratings inspired overconfidence in investments tied to toxic mortgages. The Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rules meant to improve the system by which such firms as Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s assign ratings.

Ratings firms won another victory against legal claims that they should be held responsible for billions of dollars in losses suffered by investors during the financial crisis. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that Moody's Corp., Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings can't be held liable for their ratings of mortgage-backed securities.