Which explains why American stocks and bonds are on the move, as Greece’s credit cut by Moody’s sends investors scrambling to find “safe” investments. Right now America is the best of a bunch of bad choices for investors.

From CNBC:

Moody’s on Monday downgraded Greece government bond ratings into junk territory, citing the risks in the euro zone/IMF rescue package for the debt-laden country.

The agency downgraded the rating by four notches to Ba1, placing it one notch into junk status. The outlook is stable.

Moody’s [MCO  19.93    0.25  (+1.27%)   ] also downgraded Greece’s short-term issuer rating to not-prime from Prime-1.

The rescue package “effectively eliminates any near-term risk of a liquidity-driven default and encourages the implementation of a credible, feasible, and incentive-compatible set of structural reforms, which have a high likelihood of stabilizing debt service requirements at manageable levels,” said Moody’s senior analyst Sarah Carlson.

“Nevertheless, the macroeconomic and implementation risks associated with the program are substantial and more consistent with a Ba1 rating,” Carlson added.

As usual CNBC gets it wrong later in the piece, claiming the announcement trimmed gains form the market while ignoring the fact that Greece’s problems destabilizing the Eurozone is at the root of the American stock rally.

Here’s a question. Moody’s made the announcement in the middle of our trading day which would mean European markets were likely already closed. Isn’t this something European investors would have liked to know when they could do something about it?