NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's CreditWire) Sept. 8, 1999--Standard&Poor's today affirmed the ratings of Duke Energy Corp. (Duke) and related entities and assigned a negative rating outlook (see list below). Long-term ratings were removed from CreditWatch, where they had been placed with negative implications on Aug. 4. Ratings of Duke Energy Trading and Marketing LLC, however, remain on CreditWatch with positive implications pending the merger of Mobil Corp. and Exxon Corp. The outlook reflects Duke Energy's growing business risk exposure, resulting from the company's aggressive expansion into nonregulated global merchant energy businesses, which raises the financial targets the company must achieve in order to maintain the existing rating. Implementation of Duke's merchant energy strategy is expected to drive
