1.   Bond-rating agencies have downgraded its bonds or threatened to do so.

2.   Both utilities have had their bonds downgraded to junk bond status.

3.   By downgrading French bonds this week they were suggesting implicitly that French fiscal policy will have to be relaxed to meet the demands of the strikers.

4.   Shares of supermarket operator Yaohan Japan Corp. fell after the Japan Credit Rating Agency Ltd. downgraded its bonds, giving them a junk rating.

5.   The stocks of both companies have plummeted, their short-term paper has virtually stopped trading and their bonds have been downgraded.