Euro zone concerns spark sell off in ADRs

NEW YORK: Overseas shares traded in the United States fell on Tuesday as weak data from Germany rekindled fears about the state of economy in the euro zone.

Adding uncertainty to the market, a meeting of French and German leaders failed to ease worries about the euro zone debt crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the leaders planned a tax on financial transactions and closer joint governance of economic policy to stop the debt crisis, but they did not propose increasing the euro-zone bailout fund or selling euro-zone bonds. For details, see

The BNY Mellon index of leading American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) was down 1.5 percent while the US benchmark S&P 500 index fell 1.2 percent.

Energy and industrial companies that are closely related to growth were the day's biggest losers.

US-listed shares of China's PetroChina fell 1.2 percent to $125.75, and France's Total lost 1.7 percent to $47.84.

Shares of Brazil's Petroleo Brasil lost 1 percent to $28.94 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The BNY Mellon index of leading European ADRs fell 1.4 percent. Among European companies, Nokia shares, which jumped in the previous session following an offer by Google Inc to buy Motorola Mobility, fell 1.7 percent to $6.18.

The BNY Mellon index of leading Asian ADRs was off 1.8 percent. Among Asian companies, Japan's Toyota Motor fell 1 percent to $75.39 and Honda Motor was also down 1.7 percent at $33.95.

Receipts with the BNY Mellon index of leading Latin American ADRs was down 1.4 percent.

Copyright Reuters, 2011