JPMorgan Downgrades Panama Rating Amid Trump’s Vows to Reclaim Canal

Trump has vowed to take back the Panama Canal. The United States ceded control of the waterway to the Central American country at the end of the last century.

Workers secure lines on a boat as it follows a ship into the Panama Canal on Feb. 21, 2024. Bobby Sanchez for The Epoch Times

Financial services giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded its assessment of Panama’s bonds on the growing concern that the United States may repossess the Panama Canal.

On Jan. 23, JPMorgan’s Global Emerging Markets Research analysts downgraded Panamanian debt from “overweight” to “marketweight.” That, according to the company’s analysts, means that it views the country’s bonds to “perform in line with the relevant index, sector, or benchmark credit returns.”