This actually isn’t news.  At some point in the near future GE will probably lose their coveted AAA rating.  The bond market has been pricing them this way for months.  Relative to their peers, we are still talking about a world-class company with world class assets in businesses with huge barriers to entry being managed by a world class team.  If the ratings agencies operate on a sliding scale (and why not?), GE clearly deserves the AAA rating.

Reuters: “Moody’s is concerned that deepening global economic weakness could further compromise (GE Capital’s) asset quality, potentially jeopardizing its ability to meet earnings objectives while also maintaining high earnings quality,” the rating agency said

GE said it would work with Moody’s on the rating, but that losing it would not significantly change its operations.

The stock was started down 5% in after hours trading on the news, giving up almost all of today’s gains but finished down just under 2%.

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Disclosure: We own it, and continue to buy for new accounts and to dollar cost-average existing positions.