Fitch cuts Sony, Panasonic debt to junk

Fitch Ratings downgraded Sony and Panasonic debt to junk status Thursday and said the ailing Japan-based consumer electronic makers both needed radical restructuring to improve their prospects.
Panasonic's rating was cut to BB from BBB-, while Sony was moved to BB- from BBB-, with a negative outlook. Both companies now carry speculative, or junk, ratings.

The downgrades are the latest in a string for Sony and Panasonic, which have been haemorrhaging money and struggling to find positive momentum.

The companies, once the crown jewels of the high-tech Japanese economy, have been hit in recent years by a strong yen and weak demand for televisions. Sony now has a market cap of just more than $10 billion, and hasn't turned a profit in four years. Read more >>

Longest Loss Streak For Japan Stocks Since 2001

Japanese stocks fell, with the Topix Index capping the longest streak of weekly losses since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, as exporters declined after U.S. economic data missed estimates and a rating cut of Spanish banks fueled concern Europe’s debt crisis is deepening.

Sony, Japan’s No. 1 exporter of consumer electronics that depends on Europe and the U.S. for 38 percent of its sales, fell 5.3 percent. Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. led machinery makers lower after industry bellwether Caterpillar Inc. said its sales growth slowed. Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan’s third-largest bank by market value, paced losses among lenders, dropping 3.4 percent after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded 16 Spanish banks.

The Topix index fell 2.9 percent to 725.54 as of the 3 p.m. trading close in Tokyo, capping its biggest daily loss since Aug. 5. The measure fell 4.3 percent this week, its seventh week of decline. It has dropped for seven straight weeks only twice since November 1977 -- in 2001 and 1995. About eight stocks fell for each that rose. More...