An exceedingly rare downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating sparked a selloff in stocks Wednesday, but experts say any longer term fallout for both the equity and debt markets should be muted.
To recap: after the stock market closed Tuesday, Fitch Ratings cut the United States' long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating by one notch to AA+ from AAA. The credit ratings agency also removed its negative rating watch on the U.S. and assigned a stable outlook in its place.
