On tour: Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser is launching a statewide tour next week to promote Louisiana’s tourism efforts and to celebrate National Tourism Week. The Associated Press reports the Republican lieutenant governor, in office since January, will have multiple stops at visitors’ centers, historic sites and other tourist locations around Louisiana from Monday through Friday. He’ll begin Monday in Port Allen and wrap up the tour Friday in Lake Charles. Other stops include Lafayette, St. Francisville, New Orleans, Houma, Morgan City, Opelousas, Alexandria, Natchitoches, Ruston, Monroe, Shreveport and Lacassine. Nungesser will be traveling in a van wrapped in the state’s current tourism marketing campaign and statistics, and will post about his travels on Twitter and Facebook. Tourism was an $11.5 billion industry for the state last year, with Louisiana drawing nearly 29 million visitors in 2015.
Downgraded: Exxon Mobil Corp. was demoted from the top credit rating by Standard & Poor’s for the first time since the Great Depression as the collapse of the biggest oil-market rally in history strangled cash flows, Bloomberg reports. The global crude explorer with sales that dwarf the economies of most nations sought to retain the AAA rating when S&P placed it on notice in February. Citing concern that credit measures would remain weak through 2018, S&P warned Exxon that it was in danger of losing the top grade first bestowed on the oil giant in 1930 and shared with just two other U.S. corporations. The rating was lowered to AA+, S&P said in a statement on Tuesday.
‘Sloppy’: Bank of America has downgraded Capital One Financial Corp. from neutral to underperform, saying the company’s lackluster Q1 performance is more than just disappointing—it’s sloppy. Financial online publication Benzinga reports analyst Kenneth Bruce says uncertainty is likely going to limit the upside for Capital One until the company straightens things out. “We are increasingly concerned that the growth in subprime credit cards could drive higher losses than is currently factored into either guidance or expectations, which we think would be ill received by the market,” Bruce explains. Despite top- and bottom-line misses in Q1, management maintained its 2016 credit guidance and optimism about growth. Bank of America is not quite so optimistic. The firm lowered its 2016/2017 EPS projections from $7.65/8.35 to $7.50/$8.15.
