Santander, BBVA downgraded at Bernstein

LONDON (MarketWatch)
Bernstein Research on Friday downgraded Spain's Banco Santander SA to underperform from market-perform and also cut BBVA SA to market-perform from outperform.
Bernstein cited several reasons for the moves, including a worsening Spanish economic environment, which could result in higher loan losses, as well as possible negative news-flows from the upcoming bank stress tests and increased fears of a capital raising from Santander.
"Following lower earnings and the sovereign debt crises, the risk/reward matrix is not compelling anymore on both stocks," Bernstein said.