Pension underfunding continues to be a credit negative for corporates. While 2009 funding levels for US pensions rebounded somewhat from 2008 levels due to strong asset performances, higher obligations offset some of these strong gains resulting in only modest improvements in funding levels. We surveyed the largest 50 US single employer pension plans, as measured by obligation, in our rated universe and the funded status was 81% for 2009 up from 78% for 2008, see Appendix I. Required pension contributions will be going up which could strain liquidity. Temporary funding relief allowed plan sponsors to push contributions out a couple of years, however absent further market rebounds and/or further legislative relief, required cash contributions will increase. While ratings pressure still remains due to large pension liabilities we do not anticipate that pension under-fundings will be the sole drivers of ratings downgrades where issuers have adequate liquidity and sufficient resources to alleviate their funding deficiency over time.