Key Takeaways • Rating activity turned net negative last week with the highest number of downgrades year-to-date. Most downgrades were on speculative-grade issuers and four of them added to the tally of risky credits. • Four defaults last week brought this year's total to 55, just below 58 in the comparable period last year. Distressed exchanges were once again the main driver of defaults. • There was one new fallen angel, Intercorp Financial Services Inc., a Peruvian financial institution whose downgrade followed that of the sovereign. • In contrast, it was a positive week for credit pricing as bond and CDS spreads tightened across the board, while benchmark yields–with the exception of China–decreased or were unchanged from the previous week.