The downgrade reflects our concerns about Wolverine's exposure to rapidly rising copper prices, which have risen by about 50 cents per pound since the end of the third quarter of 2005 and about 20 cents per pound in January 2006 alone. We expect that higher copper prices would result in a continued drain of Wolverine's liquidity and that Wolverine's credit metrics will remain very poor over the near term as the company continues to face high copper prices.

Lisa Wright