But if it's too dire, he risks sending GM's BBB- credit rating into the junk pile.
The bonds, rated Baa2 by Moody's and BBB-plus by Fitch, have a coupon of 7.8%.
If your bonds have recently been reaffirmed at BBB you have a small cushion.
Corporate bonds rated BBB are yielding 8%, while their below-investment-grade BB brethren yield 9%.
Russian debt is rated BBB, one of the lowest of the investment grade ratings.
Everything from BBB and above is considered investment grade, while anything BB and below is considered junk.
Recently newly issued BBB rated bonds were yielding 3.73% while B-rated bonds were yielding 6.66%, according to Highyieldbond.com.
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For the past year, Shilling has followed his own advice and made a 600% return on BBB-rated CDOs.
The ratings service cited the thrift's exposure to the mortgage securities market, downgrading it to BB-minus from BBB-minus.
The rating agency has a BBB-minus rating with a negative outlook on India.
Two years ago, Gary put some money with hedge fund superstar John Paulson who shorted the ABX BBB Index.
But if you were BBB-rated, you had some trouble, and if you were lower than BBB-rated, it was nearly impossible.
Complaints were filed with the FTC and BBB, and now, one of those bodies has actually commented on the matter.
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In America, spreads of bonds rated BBB are about 1.2 percentage points, four points less than they yielded in October 2002.
The sourpuss bond rating agencies weren't so sure and said they're reviewing Valero's BBB-credit rating and might downgrade it to junk status.
Debt has dropped to 3.5 times operating income from 7.2 times back in 1996, enough to support the firm's Bbb junk-bond rating.
Fitch Ratings also has the sovereign on BBB-minus with a negative outlook.
Even Azerbaijan, with its investment grade status affirmed at BBB- by Fitch in May, was raised from a stable outlook to positive.
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The BBB credit rating is just two notches higher than junk status.
Bonds rated BBB (the lowest that qualify for investment grade) yield more, relative to government bonds, than at any time since 1932.
Call or go online to check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
So much so, in fact, that Fitch, a rating agency, has raised by one notch (to BBB minus) its view of Russia's creditworthiness.
The a- to bbb-- rated bonds, Wilkus says, are yielding 16% to 19% and have an astonishingly low default rate (0.5% of the loans).
Spain had been in the limelight after Fitch Ratings late Thursday downgraded the country's credit rating to BBB from A, with a negative outlook.
You also can check for any complaints filed against it with the Better Business Bureau at bbb.org and consult with people in your network.
High-yield bonds, BBB with 10-year duration, sold to yield 9 percent.
Spreads of BBB bonds have tightened from 115bps to about 50.
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In this case, I looked at the MMD A Electric Power as a benchmark, since there is no MMD for BBB-rated bonds in the electric power sector.
This is better than 10-year Treasuries or even BBB debentures.
The sovereign now has the lowest investment-grade rating of BBB-.
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