Moody's downgrades U.S. to Aa1

Moody's Ratings cut the United States' long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings to Aa1 from Aaa on May 16, 2025, the rating agency said in a published sovereign rating action. The move ended a more than century-long period in which Moody's had assigned the U.S. its top triple-A rating. (moodys.com) Moody's also changed the outlook to stable from negative. The agency said the downgrade reflected what it called a lasting deterioration in U.S. fiscal strength. ### When did Moody’s actually make the downgrade? May 16, 2025, is the date Moody's gave for the U.S. downgrade in its published rating action. (events.moodys.com) That matters because references to the move as a current Friday event can blur the timeline: the downgrade itself was announced last year, not on May 19 or May 20, 2026. Moody's summarized the action as a cut to Aa1 from Aaa with a stable outlook. Moody's kept the downgrade page active in 2026 as part of its U.S. sovereign rating materials. The company's event page for a follow-up briefing described the U.S. as rated Aa1 with a stable outlook after the downgrade. (moodys.com) ### What did Moody’s say drove the cut? Moody's said the downgrade reflected a “lasting deterioration in fiscal strength,” according to its sovereign rating materials. The agency's follow-up event description said it was monitoring the likely evolution of the U.S. interest burden and debt burden after the cut. (moodys.com) March 25, 2025, is also listed on Moody's U.S. sovereign page as the date of a report titled “Fiscal strength will continue to weaken in most scenarios.” That listing shows the agency had been flagging budget and debt pressures before the May 16 downgrade. (moodys.com) ### Did Moody’s remove the last triple-A rating the U.S. had? Moody's had rated the United States Aaa before the May 2025 action, and its downgrade to Aa1 removed that top rating at Moody's. The published action says the U.S. long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings were lowered one notch. (moodys.com) The Moody's materials available through its sovereign page do not, by themselves, compare its action with the standing views of other rating agencies. What they do establish is that Moody's no longer classifies the U.S. at Aaa and that the current Moody's outlook is stable. (moodys.com) ### What does the stable outlook tell investors? A stable outlook means Moody's did not pair the downgrade with another negative outlook. The agency explicitly changed the outlook to stable from negative at the same time it cut the rating. (moodys.com) Moody's said in its May 2025 event description that the follow-up questions for investors included what supports the rating at Aa1 and what it would monitor going forward. That framing indicates the agency saw the downgrade as a completed rating action, with future surveillance focused on debt and interest trends. (moodys.com) ### What is the next concrete thing to watch? May 20, 2025, was the date Moody's scheduled a “Sovereign Credit Today” briefing on the U.S. rating action. The event page listed Sarah Carlson, CFA, and William Foster as speakers and said the session would address the likely path of the U.S. interest and debt burden after the downgrade. (moodys.com) I could verify the Moody's downgrade and its date from Moody's own materials. I could not independently verify the Reuters market figures from the provided Reuters URL because the page would not open through the tool, so I did not include those market details. (events.moodys.com)