Rolls-Royce cut to junk, British Airways downgraded 

In a bad day for UK PLC Rolls-Royce saw its ratings cut to junk by Standard & Poor’s while British Airways was downgraded to one step above investment grade by Moody’s, with both agencies pointing to the impact of COVID 19 as the reason for their decision. Standard & Poor’s cut its rating for the British company to BB from “BBB-, below investment-grade, saying that actions to contain the pandemic, “including government-imposed social-distancing measures, travel restrictions, and stay-at-home orders, have suddenly and sharply reduced global demand for air travel”. Last week Rolls-Royce announced 9000 redundancies and said it had taken