Financial Winners & Losers: CIT Group

Financial stocks ended Friday mixed, as commercial lender CIT Group(CIT) plunged after its debt was downgraded by Moody's Investors Service and insurer American International Group (AIG) jumped on an analyst upgrade.

Moody's dropped CIT's debt rating to Baa1 from A3 and CIT wasted no time issuing a public statement disagreeing with the cut. CIT pointed to all the work the company has down to shore up its balance sheet, but it wasn't enough to keep the stock from sinking. Shares slid 8.5% to $10.

On the positive side, a Morgan Stanley analyst upgraded AIG to overweight from equal-weight based on valuation. The insurance giant moved up 1.9% to $36.

The NYSE Financial Sector Index flip-flopped all day, but ended down 9.56 to 7,358.78.

Deutsche Bank analysts raised the price target on MasterCard(MA), predicting that the credit card company would benefit from international business as the U.S. economy slows. Investors responded favorably pushing the stock into positive territory as shares traded up hitting an intra-day high of $320.30. After a nice run up Thursday, after the company provided bullish guidance, however, investors ended up taking profits and the stock ended down 35 cents to $308.65.

Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank(DB) tumbled 5.5% to $107.15 on little news.

Another analyst upgrade helped Federated Investors(FII) jump 37 cents to $36.81. Merrill Lynch bumped the stock to a buy from neutral, citing its potential equity and fixed income growth. The Pittsburgh-based asset management firm provides services to financial firms.

And finally, the big winner of the day was Quanta Capital(QNTA), which skyrocketed 42% to $2.67. The Bermuda-based reinsurance firm is to be acquired by Catalina Holdings for $2.80 a share. Catalina is also based in Bermuda and specializes in the acquisition and management of non-life insurance and reinsurance companies.

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