France set to lose triple-A rating: reports (by Christopher Noble)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Ratings agency Standard & Poor's is set to announce later Friday that it has cut France's coveted triple-A rating, undermining euro-zone efforts to solve a persistent sovereign-debt crisis, according to media reports. French news agency Agence France Presse, citing an unnamed government source, reported on its website that S&P had already informed the French government of the move. Neither the ratings agency nor the French Finance Ministry would comment, AFP reported. Austria was also set to be downgraded, but fellow euro-zone countries Germany and the Netherlands reportedly were not to be downgraded. The euro (eurusd) fell to session lows after the report and recently traded at $1.2673, down 1.1%.