Insights

The February Monthly Credit Outlook looks at recent credit trends and highlights seen in the consensus dataset. This month, credit risk is elevated but some positive surprises may be possible.

3G has been a major legacy network overhead and consumer of spectrum bandwidth in the US. But as 5G moves into high gear the Big 3 wireless carriers needed to reallocate capacity to fully support the 5G network, and free up resource for the development of 6G and beyond. With the 3G burden removed, the sector’s Big 3 are better placed to invest in future technologies with less strain on balance sheets.

Both US Consumer Services and Goods are currently hovering around neutral CCI scores. But the Black Friday stats so far suggest a good December, at least for consumer goods; if that momentum can be maintained we could see more positive CCIs across the Consumer sector.

With more teams playing than ever before (and a further expansion planned for 2026) the World Cup might provide some real surprises. But for a quadrennial contest that has been around for over 90 years, the list of winners is a bit repetitive. This insight compares average Sovereign Credit Consensus Rating for each of the defined Winners, Determined and Unqualified groups.

COP27 needs to answer one question: is a declining standard of living the price of a sustainable future? Countries with weaker credit ratings will typically see more impact of climate change – with some exceptions. This report compares Sovereign credit against climate impact risk.