On Oct. 25, 2005, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long- and short-term corporate credit ratings on E.I. DuPont de Nemours&Co. to 'A' and 'A-1', respectively, from 'AA-' and 'A-1+' (see list below). The downgrade follows the company's announcement that it plans to repurchase $5 billion of its common stock within the next two years. At the same time, Standard&Poor's assigned its 'A-1' rating to the company's new $8 billion 4(2) commercial paper program, which will replace a 3(a)3 program of the same size. The outlook is stable. The stock buyback program is substantial – representing about one-eighth of the company's outstanding shares at the current market price – and, in our view, a permanent
