THREE BIG UH-OHS!: TEN BANKS DOWNGRADED AND A HUGE VOLCANO IS UPGRADED!

Moody’s Investors Service cut its credit ratings on Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo on Wednesday, saying that Washington was now less likely to bail out the banks if needed.

“The downgrades result from a decrease in the probability that the U.S. government would support the bank, if needed,” Moody’s said.

FEELS LIKE WE ARE JUST ABOUT 2-3 MONTHS TO GO BEFORE A CRASH.... WHY? HERE'S WHY: THEY DOWNGRADED LEHMAN'S IN JUNE 2009:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service MCO -1.67% on Monday lowered the rating outlook on Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to negative from stable after the bank said it will raise $6 billion in new capital and expects a $2.8 billion loss for the second quarter. The ratings agency said it made cuts because of "concerns over risk management decisions that resulted in elevated real estate exposures and the subsequent ineffectiveness of hedges to mitigate these exposures in the recent quarter."

LEHMAN FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY IN SEPTEMBER 15.

THE STOCK MARKETS CRASHED THE NEXT DAY.

ANOTHER UH-OH:

Standard & Poor's said Wednesday that it had downgraded seven Italian banks because of sovereign debt risk, a day after the agency downgraded Italy's credit rating.The cut targeted leading banks Mediobanca SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, as well as Findomestic Banca SpA, Banca IMI SpA, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA, Banca Infrastrutture Innovazione e Sviluppo SpA and Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna SpA.

The agency said it was assigning negative outlooks to the long-term ratings on these seven banks. It was also revising its outlooks from stable to negative on eight other Italian banks, including Unicredit.

MAYBE AN EVEN BIGGER AND WORSER UH-OH:

Indonesia’s Mount Tambora volcano alert level heightened

Dompu - Increased rumblings this month from Mount Tambora on Indonesia’s Sumbawa Island are forcing residents to take the mountain seriously, with authorities there raising the volcano alert to its second-highest level.

WHY MIGHT THIS BE BAD NEWS? HERE'S WHY:

Mount Tambora (or Tamboro) is an active stratovolcano, also known as a composite volcano, on the island ofSumbawa, Indonesia. Sumbawa is flanked both to the north and south by oceanic crust, and Tambora was formed by the active subduction zone beneath it. This raised Mount Tambora as high as 4,300 m (14,100 ft),[4] making it formerly one of the tallest peaks in the Indonesian archipelago. After a large magma chamber inside the mountain filled over the course of several decades, volcanic activity reached a historic climax in the super-colossal eruption of April 1815.[5]

The 1815 eruption is rated 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, the only such eruption since the Lake Taupo eruption in about 180 AD.[6] With an estimated ejecta volume of 160 cubic kilometers, Tambora's 1815 outburst was the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history.

BETTER BRACE YOURSELF. THINGS ARE LOOKING OMINOUSLY BAD.