Asian stock markets are down in unison.

South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 1.9%, while Japan’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell more than 2%.

This was largely due to the news of the US credit rating downgrade before Asian markets opened.

International credit rating agency Fitch lowered the US sovereign credit rating to ‘AA+’ from its highest rating of ‘AAA’.

It’s only one notch, and it’s still a high rating, but it removes U.S. government bonds from the list of safest assets.

Fitch cited the US government’s debt as the reason.

The U.S. fiscal deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product jumped from 3.7% last year to 6.3% this year and will continue to deteriorate in the years ahead as interest payments and spending from an aging population increase, Fitch said.

In particular, it noted that the U.S. political establishment is locked in an endless standoff over raising the debt ceiling.

This is the first time in 12 years that the three major international credit rating agencies have lowered the U.S. sovereign rating since Standard & Poor’s in 2011.

The U.S. government, which needs market confidence to continue issuing government bonds at low interest rates, reacted strongly.

A White House spokesperson countered that the downgrade was unrealistic given that the U.S. economy is in the midst of one of the strongest recoveries among the world’s major economies.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also emphasized that “U.S. Treasuries remain the safest assets in the world, and the foundations of the U.S. economy are strong.”

The consensus is that there won’t be a major shock to financial markets.

That’s because even if there is a bump in the road, 먹튀검증 there are still plenty of reliable and liquid investments outside of U.S. assets.