( CNN ) -- Standard & Poor 's move lowering the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+ shook global markets over the weekend as traders reacted to the news . Shares dipped across the Middle East Sunday as the region 's exchanges were among the first global markets to open since the historic downgrade . Israel 's stock market fell more than 6 % , and the Tel Aviv 25 Index ended the trading day down 6.99 % . The Dubai Financial Market ( DFM ) General Index fell 3.7 % on Sunday . And the General Index on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange lost 2.5 % . In Saudi Arabia , the Tadawul All-Share Index gained less than 0.1 % after dropping nearly 5.5 % Saturday . Analysts predict more slides as markets in other countries open Monday at the beginning of the work week there . U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will participate in a conference call Sunday evening with other representatives of Group of Seven industrialized nations to discuss the downgraded U.S. credit rating , a G-7 official told CNN . The G-7 nations are Canada , France , Germany , Italy , Japan , Russia , the United Kingdom and the United States . The Bank of Israel issued a statement Sunday aimed at reassuring investors . `` So far the debt crises abroad have had a limited impact on Israel , due to its macroeconomic strength , achieved by means of adherence to fiscal discipline , among other things , in the last few years , '' the statement said . But one analyst said the U.S. debt crisis may be a symptom of a larger problem Israel faces . `` The United States is in serious trouble , gradually weakening , in a major crisis , '' said Pinchas Landau , an independent financial advisor in Israel and the publisher of the Landau Report . `` This constitutes bad news for the state of Israel . It means that the strategic , financial , military , political backup for Israel is weakening . '' The move by S & P , one of the leading credit rating agencies , came Friday -- just days after Congress approved a deal to deliver $ 2.1 trillion in savings over the next decade . The deal followed heated debt-ceiling talks in Washington . One person close to S & P 's decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating told CNN Saturday that the agency expects the action to have `` very mild real-world impact . '' Rating agencies such as S & P , Moody 's and Fitch analyze risk and give debt a grade that is supposed to reflect the borrower 's ability to repay its loans . The safest bets are stamped AAA . That 's where the U.S. debt has stood for years . Moody 's first assigned the United States an AAA rating in 1917 . Fitch and Moody 's , the other two main credit ratings agencies , maintained the AAA rating for the United States after last week 's debt deal , though Moody 's lowered its outlook on U.S. debt to `` negative . '' A negative outlook indicates the possibility that Moody 's could downgrade the country 's sovereign credit rating within a year or two . Stock market values fell Friday across Europe and Asia , where reaction to news of the U.S. credit downgrade was mixed . A scathing editorial in the Chinese state-run Xinhua News Agency criticized the United States for living outside its means . `` China , the largest creditor of the world 's sole superpower , has every right now to demand the United States to address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China 's dollar assets , '' the editorial said . `` To cure its addiction to debts , the United States has to re-establish the common sense principle that one should live within its means . '' CNN 's Athena Jones , Guy Azriel , Deborah Doft and John Raedler contributed to this report .
NEW : G-7 nations will hold a conference call to discuss the downgraded rating . Shares dip across the Middle East as markets open . Israel 's Tel Aviv 25 index ends the trading day down 6.99 % . The Dubai Financial Market ( DFM ) General Index falls 3.7 % .