Jefferies rating cut by Egan-Jones Ratings Company, temporarily sent the company's shares plunging over sovereign debt fears.  Trading in the company was temporarily halted Thursday morning.  After trading resumed, the stock recovered to more than $12, up nearly 1 percent from the closing price on Wednesday. Egan-Jones flagged a handful of issues that investors should be concerned about, including the company’s leverage ratio and its exposure to European sovereign debt, which it estimated at $2.7 billion. Since the bankruptcy of MF Global earlier this week, Jefferies has been fighting heightened fears about its exposure to debt problems on the Continent. On Tuesday, Jefferies said it had “no meaningful exposure to the sovereign debt of the nations of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain.” It said it took positions in the debt of these countries from time to time but that those positions tended to “short-term in nature.” After the share volatility on Thursday, Jefferies issued a statement clarifying its position, saying it had “no meaningful net exposure to European sovereign debt.” “Recent reports and calculations appear to have been focusing only on long inventory of $2.684 billion but not taking into account the fact that there were offsetting short positions in such sovereign debt of $2.545 billion as well as offsetting positions in futures instruments,” the firm said. Jefferies added later that it “has no credit-default swaps hedging its sovereign debt positions, which as previously indicated are short-term trading positions that turn over approximately three to four times per week. ”  [dealbook 11/3/11]