Shares of General Electric (GE: sentiment, chart, options) have fallen more than 9% heading into the final half hour of trading today. The stock is largely following Wall Street's lead, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging more than 252 points. However, Standard & Poor's has added a bit of additional downside pressure, as the ratings firm lowered its outlook on GE Capital Corp. to negative from stable due to its reliance on confidence-sensitive wholesale funding. S&P affirmed its AAA long-term and A-1+ short-term counterparty credit ratings on parent company General Electric. "[GE Capital Corp.'s] earnings deterioration in 2009 and 2010 could be greater than we previously assumed," S&P said in a statement.

Technically, GE has fallen more than 17% since peaking at $19.30 per share on December 8. The stock is now perched back below resistance at the 17.50 level and its 10-day moving average. Short-term support has materialized at the 16.50 level, which is also home to the security's 20-day trendline.

Investor sentiment has changed little since my last look at the shares. According to Zacks.com, 9 of the 13 analysts following GE rate the shares a "hold," with 4 "buys" and no "sells." Meanwhile, the equity's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) has edged slightly lower from its December 16 reading at 0.90 to its current perch at 0.89. This ratio remains in the lower third of its annual range, and indicates a bullish bias from the speculative group.