NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) July 22, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings on U.S. Bancorp (USB) are unaffected by the company's second-quarter earnings report. USB's quarter was solid and better than we expected, given economic conditions. Core earnings, excluding a $123 million special insurance assessment by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., were about $550 million, up from about $470 million in the first quarter before a $92 million gain on real estate. The gain was largely on lower securities losses. Mortgage banking profits extended their strong performance from the first quarter, reflecting in part modest hedging gains on mortgage servicing rights. Consumer loan growth continued, in contrast to industry trends, but commercial loan weakness offset
