At 1:18 p.m. East Coast Time on Feb. 2, Standard & Poor's issued a note stating that recent actions by PNC would have no effect on its debt ratings. Earlier that day the bank had announced it was selling its Global Investment Services unit to Bank of New York Mellon for $2.3 billion. 

The S&P release also noted that PNC had "announced its intention to raise $3 billion of common equity and up to $2 billion of senior debt." PNC, though, had not yet made the stock and debt sale public; that was to happen after the market closed at 4 pm. 

PNC's stock had been trading between $55.99 and $55.19 in the morning. Half an hour after S&P's release it was at $55.89 and then fell more than 3.5 percent to $53.90 over the next hour. It ended the session at $54.65. 

After the market closed, PNC announced its intention to raise capital and the following day priced 55.556 million common shares at $54 a share to raise $3 billion. 

• Standard and Poor's release
• PNC press release one about capital raises
• PNC press release two about capital raises