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As the world’s biggest credit raters review their assessment of Canada’s energy companies, the bond market has already made up its mind.

Bonds of almost 80 per cent of Canadian energy companies are trading at levels that imply credit ratings lower than those assigned by Moody’s Investors Service, as crude prices remain near six-year lows. Of the 37 Canadian oil and gas companies whose bond prices are followed by Moody’s Analytics, the credit rater’s market-tracking unit, 29 are trading as if they’ve already been downgraded. This includes two of the biggest names, Suncor Energy Inc. and Cenovus Energy Inc.

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As Moody’s continues to review its grades for the industry and rival rater Standard & Poor’s prepares to update its assumptions for the companies this month, investors are concerned growth is slowing in China, the world’s largest commodities consumer. That means there’s little relief in sight for the cash-squeezed companies operating in one of the world’s most expensive places to extract crude, even as oil climbed to a one-month high Tuesday.

“There are going to be some companies that get hit,” said Matthew Duch, a money manager at Calvert Investments in Bethesda, Md., which oversees more than $13 billion in assets. “We’re not going back to $80 oil anytime soon.”