Goodness. Lots of news from Standard & Poor's of late. First they announce Global Investment House in Kuwait has dropped its rating. Then comes a much bigger story: they've <a href="http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090430/BUSINESS/704309970/1005">put six Dubai companies on credit-watch negative</a>, which means they're on review for a possible ratings downgrade. S&P apparently got spooked after Nakheel indicated that it may seek to restructure a $3.5bn sukuk slug that's coming due at the end of this year. To S&P, that meant that the Dubai government wasn't planning on stepping in and making good on Nakheel's sukuk, which in turn meant that there's less implicit governmental support for the company. Ratings agencies have been a jittery bunch ever since they were called to account for their high ratings on some of the more exotic asset-backed securities products that spurred on the financial crisis. Moody's has also had its own frenzy of of Dubai-based companies in February. This sort of thing may cause a bit of nail-biting for holders of these companies' bonds, but no huge Dubai government entity has failed or been forced into a restructuring yet, so I'd be very surprised now if one did, especially with the $10bn that's already come from the UAE Central Bank and the $10bn more that could be made available. S&P release after the jump.