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"Financial institutions are now shedding balance-sheet risk and altering funding profiles and strategies for the marketplace's new reality," S&P credit analyst Rodrigo Quintanilla said in a statement Wednesday. "Such a transition period justifies lower ratings as industry players implement changes." The S&P downgrades shouldn't be surprising. All of these banks were on S&P's CreditWatch list, warning the market that a downgrade was highly likely. The market wasn't celebrating the downgrades as the Dow finished Wednesday down 7.49, or .09%, to 8,497.18. However, one name in the group that is surprising is Wells Fargo. When the crisis came to a head in September, Wells Fargo was one of the banks that analysts predicted would be the least harmed from the credit crisis. At his annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett even said if there's one stock he could have put all his money into when the company hit its lows it would have been Wells Fargo. Obviously, they were off, way off. However, Wells Fargo is now suffering from taking over Wachovia bank in the eye of the credit storm for $14.8 billion. While peer J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) picked up Washington Mutual on the cheap around the same time and is not suffering for it, the difference is the involvement of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Unlike J.P. Morgan, Wells did not seek the government's assistance in the deal. - Gerald Magpily
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Talk about taking it down a notch. Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's seemed to 
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News media, including this article, report that 18 banks were down graded by S&P, yet none gave the old, and the new ratings. Why?