US-listed shares of overseas companies were flat on Friday, while European banks mostly rose in spite of lingering worries over the region's debt crisis. Some support came as Italian and Spanish bond yields fell following buying by the European Central Bank.
Traders were upbeat following a Reuters report on Thursday that eurozone and International Monetary Fund officials have discussed having the ECB lend to the IMF so it has sufficient resources to bail out even the biggest eurozone sovereigns. The ECB intervened on the secondary bond market Friday to relieve pressure on Italian notes after Italy's new government announced far-reaching reforms in response to a debt crisis that now threatens to engulf France and Spain. Shares of Deutsche Bank advanced 1.5 percent to $36.57 in New York, while shares of Spain's Banco Santander gained 1.5 percent to $7.45. Shares of Barclays rose 1.9 percent to $10.52.
The Royal Bank of Scotland went up 2.4 percent to $6.51. Shares of big Japanese exporters slipped as the yen gained against the dollar. Against the yen, the dollar slid as low as 76.575 on trading platform EBS. Shares of Toyota fell 1.2 percent to $63.56.
The BNY Mellon index of leading American Depository Receipts was down 0.03 percent, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 0.04 percent. The BNY Mellon index of leading European ADRs was up 0.2 percent, while the BNY Mellon index of leading Asian ADRs was down 0.3 percent and the BNY Mellon index of leading Latin American ADRs was down 0.5 percent.