Ireland's credit rating was cut to junk status by ratings agency Moody's which said the country will likely need further rounds of official financing before it can return to international capital markets.

Moody's cut Ireland's ratings by one notch to Ba1 from Baa3 and kept a negative outlook on the rating.

CHRIS RUPKEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHIEF FINANCIAL ECONOMIST, BANK OF TOKYO/MITSUBISHI UFJ, NEW YORK

We've had a lot of downgrades recently and this one-notcher doesn't seem to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back.

The market may have bigger fish to fry here and is waiting for the (European Union) bank stress tests later in the week and the EU finance meeting on Friday which is looking at the widening of the crisis.

The euro is down about one-half cent on the news, but we would be surprised if this story has legs overnight into the London open.

JOE SALUZZI, CO-MANAGER OF TRADING, THEMIS TRADING, CHATHAM, N.J.

I don't think the market really moved much on it. It seems to be nowadays that everyone is anticipating a sovereign downgrade. It didn't seem to move the dial too much and it certainly is continuing everyday.

The question becomes how much can you rescue? It's constant and it seems futile at the end they're trying to continue to patch things.

Most people anticipated this type of downgrade. If this was a year ago, everyone would've hit the sell button, but the markets almost been numbed to effect of sovereign issues. But the cumulative effect is still building.

CARL WEINBERG, CHIEF ECONOMIST AT HIGH FREQUENCY ECONOMICS, VALHALLA, NEW YORK:

The issue isn't Ireland any more. It's a problem but the whole focus right now is on resolving this Italian thing quickly. Italy is a big player. It's unambiguous they could cause a big ouch if they go belly-up, I don't think they will....Italy is not in unexplored territory any way (on making bond payments). There is no reason to think they could not raise the money if the markets let them. It's all about optics now and they're very bad now. If Greece can be fixed for real, no one will doubt they can do it.