On Friday, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded nine Portuguese banks because of increased asset risk as a result of the banks’ holdings of Portuguese government debt and the sovereign downgrade of Portugal in July to Ba2 with a negative outlook.

“The key driver for the downgrades of most banks’ debt and deposit ratings is Moody’s assessment of the deterioration of their unsupported financial strength,” said the ratings agency.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

Moody’s said it had downgraded by one or two notches the senior debt and deposit ratings of nine banks and downgraded by one or two notches the standalone ratings of six of these banks.

All of the banks’ ratings carry a negative outlook with the exception of Banco Portugues de Negocios, which has a developing outlook on all of its ratings. it said.

The six banks which experienced downgrades of standalone ratings and debt and deposit ratings are: Caixa Geral de Depositos, Banco Comercial Portugues, Banco Espirito Santo, Banco BPI, Banco Santander Totta and Caixa Economica Montepio Geral.

“However, Moody’s believes that these plans face significant implementation risks,” Moody’s said.

Tags: deposit ratings, government debt, ratings agency

After euro zone policymakers moved to shore up struggling banks and fend off a financial crisis, Asian stocks rose on Friday and the euro clung to gains from a 2-cent rally.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced aggressive liquidity measures to throw a lifeline to lenders who have seen wholesale funding drying up as market confidence ebbed, and the European Union said it would present a plan for a coordinated recapitalization of banks by member states.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

Gold, oil, copper and equities were all on course to post weekly gains on hopes that Europe’s leaders may finally be getting to grips with a two-year-old sovereign debt crisis, although the scale of the task meant caution remained high.

“There are still plenty of problems that face the European financial system,” said Greg Gibbs, strategist at RBS in Sydney. “The risk rally will probably run out to steam in the next week.”

Fears that the crisis is heading inexorably towards a default by Greece — and possibly others — that could trigger turmoil in the banking system have caused a sharp sell-off in riskier assets since late July.

U.S. stocks rose more that 1.5 percent on Thursday and S&P 500 index futures traded in Asia were mildly negative. “No one wants to take a big position ahead of the U.S. jobs report later in case there is a downside surprise,” said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments in Tokyo.

Tags: debt crisis, euro zone, liquidity measures

After Amazon.com launched its Kindle Fire at a mass market-friendly $199, Asian technology companies came under pressure on Thursday to slash prices of their tablet computers.

Major Asian tablet makers, from Samsung Electronics to Sony Corp, have ambitious plans to take on Apple but none of them have however been able to gain any significant market share from Apple.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

So far, Samsung has been seen as the most credible challenger to the iPad and some analysts suggest it could lose its No. 2 position to the eagerly anticipated Fire.

The South Korean company’s tablet marketing campaign has also stumbled in recent months due to Apple’s legal attempts to ban Samsung’s tablet sales in Australia, the United States and Germany, over patent infringement, among other claims.

The Kindle Fire, while lacking many of the high-tech bells and whistles common on tablets from cameras to 3G wireless connection, may sound the death knell for a raft of devices based on Google Inc’s Android operating system.

“Amazon’s retail-based business model allows the company to subsidize the device on the premise that consumers will buy more from Amazon, be that physical goods or its digital content,” said Adam Leach, an analyst at research firm Ovum.

Tags: Amazon, Apple, Kindle Fire, marketing campaign, tablet computers

The much-awaited Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon has been introduced and priced at $199.

The tablet is the latest–and possibly biggest–challenger to Apple Inc.’s dominant iPad.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos said, “We asked ourselves, Is there some way we can bring all of these things together [web service, Prime, Kindle, instant video and its app store] into a remarkable product offering customers would love. Yes there is Kindle Fire,” during the launch.

The cheapest new Kindle will cost $79, and dispenses with the keyboard the Kindles have carried since the first model launched in 2007. Previously, the cheapest Kindle cost $114.

Amazon is also bringing out the first black-and-white Kindle with a touch screen. It will cost $99 and is reminiscent of Barnes & Noble’s latest Nook. A version with access to AT&T’s cellular network for book downloads will cost $149.

The Kindle Fire tablet will run on modified version of Google’s Android operating system has a 7-inch screen. The tablet will go on sale from Nov 15 and the pre-orders started on September 28, 2011.

Tags: Amazon, Android operating system, instant video, iPad, Kindle, Kindle Fire tablet, Prime, web service

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Tags: online marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, YouTube video