Last week was generally positive for rating activity, with upgrades and positive outlook revisions or CreditWatch placements nearly doubling negative ones. The upgrades included a rising star, Spain-based Banco de Credito Social Cooperativo S.A. Downgrades included the Panama sovereign, and the subsequent and related downgrade of Autoridad del Canal de Panama. There were five defaults last week, up from two in the previous week. Of the four publicly rated defaults, three were from the U.S. Also, three of the public defaults were due to distressed exchanges.