(BBC News) Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has defended the strength of the U.S. economy, after the government was stripped of its top-tier credit rating.
Yellen called the decision by Fitch, one of the three big ratings firms, “puzzling” and “entirely unwarranted”.
Her remarks came as global stock markets dropped and many buyers of Treasuries, as U.S. government debt is known, demanded higher returns.
The S&P 500 ended trade about 1.4% lower, while the Nasdaq fell 2.17%.
The Dow Jones also fell nearly 1%. The declines in the U.S. followed falls in the UK and other international markets.
