S&P downgrades ExxonMobil's top credit rating

Houston

STANDARD & Poor's stripped ExxonMobil of its top credit rating on Tuesday for the first time since the Great Depression, signalling that even the mightiest oil company cannot escape the worst oil and gas slump since the 1980s.

Only two US companies now have an S&P AAA rating - Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson. Nearly every oil and gas company has been downgraded recently; scores of mostly small ones have filed for bankruptcy protection.

But investors shrugged off the downgrade to AA+, still a stellar rating, and slightly bid up ExxonMobil's stock price on Tuesday to close at US$87.63. Standard & Poor's described the company's financial situation as "stable". The downgrade, though, will probably raise the company's borrowing costs and may lower somewhat its status among state oil companies as the p…