when it comes to major wall street banks and institutions they all use different terminology and classifications morgan stanley for example uses the terms overweight equal weight and underweight the timeline for its ratings is 12 to 18 months 1 credit suisse uses the terms outperform neutral and underperform which is based on a 12 month time period 2 all of these terms are variations of the buy hold and sell ratings 
in august 2023 fitch ratings dropped the credit rating of the united states from aaa to aa citing a steady deterioration in standards of governance within congress over raising the country s debt ceiling these bouts of brinkmanship raised the prospects that the u s might eventually default on some debts increasing the risk for international lenders the other two major agencies did not change their evaluation of the country s credit risk 3for a bond a rating agency will assess the bond s relative safety based upon the issuing entity s fundamental financial picture which scrutinizes the issuer s ability to repay the principal and make interest payments the ratings for moody s and s p from highest to lowest in the investment grade category are aaa aaa aa1 aa aa2 aa aa3 aa a1 a a2 a a3 a baa1 bbb baa2 bbb and baa3 bbb 45standard poor s is the provider of the s p 500 index as well as a leading data source and index provider of independent credit ratings s p 500 index is a widely utilized gauge for determining the overall condition of the u s stock market 6moody s is a provider of international financial research on government and commercial issued bonds moody s utilizes a rating system to judge a borrower s creditworthiness this rating scale goes starts at aaa being of the highest quality and goes to c being of the lowest quality 4fitch ratings is also a credit rating agency that is international this agency bases its ratings on factors such as how sensitive a company is to internal changes and the kind of debt the company holds 7 fitch is used by investors as a guide to what investments will not default and will in turn lead to a solid return the ratings assigned by the various rating agencies are based primarily upon the insurer s or issuer s creditworthiness this rating can therefore be interpreted as a direct measure of the probability of default however credit stability and priority of payment are also factored into the rating 