Standard & Poor's has lowered certain ratings of Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch & Co., and Morgan Stanley after the completion of a global securities industry review. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s long-term rating has been lowered from A-plus to A, and the counterparty credit ratings of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley have been lowered from A-plus/A1 to A/A1. S&P analysts cited "concern that the pace and extent of earnings improvement could be considerably more muted than we previously assumed" in the downgrades. S&P can be found on the Web at http://www.standardandpoors.com.
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