Stifel analyst Shlomo Rosenbaum said that it appears August has been a particularly weak month for debt issuance, which means an "exceedingly strong September" will be needed to achieve consensus estimates for the respective ratings businesses of Moody's (MCO) and S&P Global (SPGI). Structured finance deals, which are particularly lucrative, have been offsetting year-over-year issuance declines in other parts of the ratings business, but the dollar and issuance volumes in the structured securities and loans areas are both down materially quarter-to-date, added Rosenbaum. He maintains Hold ratings on both Moody's and S&P Global.