Credit rating
An agency's opinion on how likely a borrower is to default.
From AAA down to D. Anything below BBB− is 'high yield', which is the polite phrase, or 'junk', which is the honest one. Lower rating means higher promised interest, because you are being paid to take default risk.
Ratings are opinions, produced by agencies paid by the issuers whose debt they rate. They have been catastrophically wrong before, most famously on mortgage securities in 2008.
Normal, and inverted
Inversion means investors will lock in today's rate for a decade rather than roll short-term debt. They are betting rates, and therefore growth, will be lower later.
It largely determines what a company pays to borrow, and therefore its cost of capital.
Treating a rating as fact rather than as one opinion with a conflict of interest attached.
Related terms
See Credit rating on a real company
SteadyShares pulls this straight from the filings for 1,100+ companies, alongside moat scores, DCF fair value and peer comparison. Free to look around.
Open SteadyShares