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.