ECONOMY & MARKETS

The sell-off in the U.S. stock market is getting ugly.

The Dow lost four percent in trading mid-day Monday, while the Nasdaq and S&P lost five percent. President Barack Obama addressed downgrade Monday, but the markets dropped further after his comments.

President Barack Obama on Monday blamed a downgrade in the United States' credit rating on political gridlock in Washington and said he would offer some recommendations on how to reduce federal deficits.

The U.S. stock market plunged on the historic downgrade of U.S. debt by ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P).

Mauritius is cutting its foreign reserve exposure to the U.S. dollar and the euro due to debt concerns in both regions by purchasing commodity currencies and is eyeing government securities from some of the BRIC nations, it said on Monday.

The Kenyan shilling extended its tumble to touch a new record low of 93.58 against the dollar on Monday, while the benchmark share index fell 2 percent as the global sell-off of emerging and frontier assets hit local markets.

South Africa's Reserve Bank sees no reason at this stage to make any significant changes in the make up of its foreign currency reserves, the Bank said on Monday, after Nigeria and Mauritius announced plans to diversify their own holdings.

S.Africa's rand and stocks fell to multi-month lows on Monday as investors dumping risk hammered everything from resource firms to banks after the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating prompted a sell-off.

Canada has options to deal with disruptions in the financial sector and is well positioned to cope with "global headwinds," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Friday.

Toronto's main stock market index sank more than 3 percent to its lowest point in nearly a year on Monday as a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating shook investor confidence globally and drove commodity prices sharply lower.

Standard & Poor's downgrading in the U.S. continued Monday, as the ratings agency lowered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee roughly half of all mortgages in America.

It looks like the U.S. Government isn't the only one taking a ratings hit. Standard & Poor's cut Freddie Mac's and Fannie Mae's long-term ratings one notch on Monday.

Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term debt rating for the U.S. to AA+, while Moody?s and Fitch maintained their ratings.

In opening minutes of trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1.2 percent, S&P 500 has slid 2.2 percent and Nasdaq has fallen 3.1 percent.

U.S. markets shed as much as two percent at the open Monday, on news of the S&P's U.S. debt rating downgrade and subsequent plummets in global markets overnight.

The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market gainers are: BroadSoft, Qiagen, and Randgold Resources. The top pre-market NASDAQ Stock Market losers are: Hercules Offshore, ZAGG, Rambus, Caribou Coffee Company, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, and Central European Media Enterprises.

The European Central Bank said on Sunday it would "actively implement" its controversial bond-buying programme to fight the euro zone's debt crisis, signaling it will buy Spanish and Italian government bonds to halt financial market contagion.

At one time during the trading session, the Kospi index was down by as much as 7.4 percent.

U.S. stock index futures point to a sharply lower opening on Monday as the nation lost its risk-free reputation.

Moody's says a future downgrade of the U.S. credit rating from AAA is possible. Also, global markets reacted harshly overnight to S&P's U.S. credit rating downgrade announced late Friday.

Global markets plummeted overnight night as news of the U.S. downgrade. Monday is the first day of trading in the U.S. and futures pointed sharply lower early by 6:30 a.m.

The government and the RBI will step in to contain the impact of an uncertain global economic situation, if needed, Chief Economic Adviser to Finance Ministry Kaushik Basu said on Monday.

Jefferies & Co. upgraded its rating on shares of Logica Plc (London: LOG) to "hold" from "underperform", while lowering its price target to 90 pence from 105 pence.

Asian shares fell on Monday and the dollar languished near a record low against the Swiss franc, as investors took fright at a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, while gold powered to another record just short of $1,690 an ounce.

S&P's historic downgrade of the U.S. raises questions over its "credibility and integrity," wrote John Bellows, Acting Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy, on the Treasury's blog.

Standard & Poor's took the unprecedented step of downgrading the U.S. government's "AAA" sovereign credit rating Friday in a move that could send shock waves through global. The following is a press release from Standard & Poor's:

U.S. stocks just had a horrendous week. The S&P 500 Index dropped 92.9 points, or 7.2 percent, which was its worst performance since November, 2008.

China holds a large amount of U.S. debt. Xinhua, the official press agency of China, issued a commentary on Aug. 6 titled After historic downgrade, U.S. must address its chronic debt problems. The commentary stated that the days when debt-ridden Uncle Sam could leisurely squander unlimited overseas borrowing seemed to be numbered because S&P slashed the country's AAA rating for the first time.

The U.S. stock market was obliterated last week. The S&P 500 Index dropped 92.9 points, or 7.2 percent, which was its worst performance since November 2008.