AGU Fundamental Research Investment Analysis, Agrium Inc.

A sweeping downgrade of financials by credit rating agency S&P was one of the major stories of the day. Or on second thought, what does this tell us that we did not already know, and so far the market has not even noticed.

As many companies are cutting staff expenses across the board, Credit Suisse has come up with a clever method of accomplishing two goals at once. For starters, the company will give their employees a bonus the amount of which will not be known for quite some time, and the company is reducing its exposure to risky debt. Interesting idea, I wonder how the CS employees feel about it.

There were a couple of very interesting pieces of news from the this morning that I believe are important. One, a study by the WSJ, has shown that banks thus far are lending less than before they received the TARP funding. The second comes from a newsletter from John Mauldin that warns of the possibility of more TARP programs headed our way.