(Marketwatch) Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group and six other major U.S. banks, saying it is no longer confident that the U.S. government would step in to support them in a future crisis.

S&P cut its ratings of the nonoperating holding companies (NOHC) of the eight U.S. banks determined to be “globally systemically important” by one notch. That has lowered ratings for Goldman Sachs GS, -2.66% Citigroup Inc. C, -1.16% Morgan Stanley MS, -1.26% and Bank of America Corp. BAC, -1.82% to BBB-plus, placing them just three notches above speculative, or “junk” status.

It cut J.P. Morgan to A-minus, and lowered State Street Corp. STT, -1.41% Bank of New York Mellon Corp. BK, -1.17% and Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, -1.60% to A.

Read the full story ›