CIT Shares Slide on Moody's Downgrade

Shares of commercial finance company CIT Group(CIT Quote) dipped more than 4% Friday after Moody's Investors Service downgraded its debt.

Moody's on late Thursday cut CIT's investment grade debt to Baa 1 from A3. Moody's justified the cut by saying the potential magnitude of losses in CIT's home lending portfolio were uncertain and has concerns the company will struggle to regain its footing in the credit markets.

CIT responded Friday that it disagrees with the downgrade and pointed out it has gone to great efforts to address the losses from rising defaults in its home lending portfolio. The financial firm noted the $1.6 billion in new capital it has raised and its recent financing of $1 billion in assets. CIT also sold more than $2 billion of assets at roughly book value and underwrote $600 million in loans. ...