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Global Tariff Tracker: Rating Actions As Of May 2, 2025

(Editor's Note: At the time this article was originally published, we misclassified one rating action in Asia-Pacific as tariff-driven. We have since removed this rating action from our count. A corrected version of the report follows.

S&P Global Ratings believes there is a high degree of unpredictability around policy implementation by the U.S. administration and possible responses--specifically with regard to tariffs--and the potential effect on economies, supply chains, and credit conditions around the world. As a result, our baseline forecasts carry a significant amount of uncertainty. As situations evolve, we will gauge the macro and credit materiality of potential and actual policy shifts and reassess our guidance accordingly (see our research here: spglobal.com/ratings). )

This report does not constitute a rating action.

In response to investors’ ongoing interest on tariff impacts on global trade and its corresponding credit effects on issuers we rate, S&P Global Ratings is publishing a biweekly update of rating actions we have taken globally on nonfinancial and financial corporate, sovereign, U.S. public finance, international public finance, and structured finance entities (see list of article titles below), as well as a summary table and supporting charts.

These are public ratings in which 2025 tariff pronouncements are a primary driver of the action. Rating actions may include upgrades, downgrades, outlook revisions, and CreditWatch placements as of May 2, 2025, unless stated otherwise.

Chart 1

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Table 1

Tariff-driven rating actions by type and category
North America Europe Asia-Pacific Latin America EEMEA Total
Downgrade 2 0 0 0 0 2
Downgrade + negative outlook/CreditWatch revision 1 0 0 0 0 1
CreditWatch negative 4 0 0 0 0 4
Outlook revision to negative 3 1 0 0 0 4
Upgrade 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total 10 1 0 0 0 11
Investment-grade 2 1 0 0 0 3
Speculative-grade 8 0 0 0 0 8
Total 10 1 0 0 0 11
Data as of May 2, 2025. Data includes rating actions taken on nonfinancial and financial corporates, sovereigns, U.S. public finance, and international public finance issuers. Source: S&P Global Ratings Credit Research & Insights.

Chart 3

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Chart 5

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Table 2

Tariff-driven rating actions by country and action type
Country Downgrade Downgrade + negative outlook/CreditWatch revision CreditWatch negative Negative outlook revision Upgrade Total
U.S. 2 1 4 3 0 10
Slovakia 0 0 0 1 0 1
Total 2 1 4 4 0 11
Data as of May 2, 2025. Data includes rating actions taken on nonfinancial and financial corporates, sovereigns, U.S. public finance, and international public finance issuers. Source: S&P Global Ratings Credit Research & Insights.

Table 3

Tariff driven rating actions by rating category and action type
Date Company Action Previous OLCW Current OLCW Rating to Rating from Sector Industry Country Region
3/10/2025 Fender Musical Instruments Corp. Downgrade and negative outlook revision Stable Negative B- B Corporate Media and entertainment U.S. North America
4/4/2025 GSM Outdoors Intermediate Holding II Corp. Negative outlook revision Stable Negative B B Corporate Consumer products U.S. North America
4/15/2025 CB Poly Investments LLC Negative outlook revision Stable Negative B B Corporate Consumer products U.S. North America
4/16/2025 Harbor Freight Tools USA Inc.  CreditWatch negative Stable Negative BB- BB- Corporate Retail and restaurants U.S. North America
4/22/2025 The Michaels Cos. Inc. CreditWatch negative Stable Negative B- B- Corporate Retail and restaurants U.S. North America
4/25/2025 Slovakia Negative outlook revision Stable Negative A+ A+ Sovereign Sovereign Slovakia Europe
4/28/2025 Conair Holdings LLC Downgrade Negative Developing CCC+ B- Corporate Consumer products U.S. North America
5/1/2025 Los Angeles Harbor Department Negative outlook revision Positive Stable AA+ AA+ USPF USPF U.S. North America
5/1/2025 Polaris Inc. Downgrade Negative Negative BBB- BBB Corporate Hotel and gaming U.S. North America
5/2/2025 VC GB Holdings I Corp. CreditWatch negative Stable Negative B B Corporate Consumer products U.S. North America
5/2/2025 SSH Holdings Inc. (dba Spencer Spirit) CreditWatch negative Stable Negative BB- BB- Corporate Retail and restaurants U.S. North America
Data as of May 2, 2025. OLCW--Outlook/CreditWatch. Data includes rating actions taken on nonfinancial and financial corporates, sovereigns, U.S. public finance, and international public finance issuers. Source: S&P Global Ratings Credit Research & Insights.

Structured Finance

As of May 2, 2025, there have been no rating actions this year in which tariff pronouncements were a primary driver of a structured finance rating action. We will continue to monitor this sector and update this publication accordingly.

Rating Action Publications

Week of April 28 

Week of April 21 

Week of April 14 

Week of March 31 

Week of March 10 

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Primary Contact:Credit Markets Research, New York 1-212-438-1396;
cmr@spglobal.com

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