By Corrie Driebusch
International companies trading in New York closed lower
Wednesday, in line with the broader market, as worries about Europe
continued to weigh on the market.
The Bank of New York index of American depositary shares fell
0.5% to 114.08.
Major industrial and mining companies traded lower on news of a
0.8% drop in euro-zone industrial production in April compared with
March, taking the level of production down to the lowest since
September 2010.
ArcelorMital SA (MT, MT.FR, MT.AE) fell 2.4% to $13.72 and Rio
Tinto PLC (RIO, RIO.LN) declined 1% to $44.51.
The European index declined 0.4% to 105.69.
Nearly 60% of investors in advertising giant WPP PLC (WPPGY,
WPP.LN) voted against the company's pay report at an investor
meeting Wednesday, lodging another protest vote against high
executive pay. Shares of WPP traded down 3.2% to $58.18.
U.K. insurer Aviva PLC (AV, AV.LN) may need to renegotiate its
insurance distribution deals with its Spanish banking partners if
there are further mergers among the country's banks, a senior
executive said Wednesday.
Shares of Aviva slipped 2.7% to $8.16.
The Asian index dropped 0.8% to 112.96.
German solar-panel maker SolarWorld AG (SWV.XE) intends to file
a complaint with the European Union against competitors from China,
who the company says are selling products at prices far below their
production cost. SolarWorld is talking to other companies to gain
their support for the move, SolarWorld Chief Executive Frank Asbeck
said on the sidelines of the Intersolar industry show in
Munich.
Last month, the U.S. government imposed 31% tariffs on some
solar panels produced in China alleging they had been dumped, or
sold below cost.
Shares of solar companies tumbled, with JinkoSolar Holding Co.
(JKS) trading down 3.8% to $4.08, Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL, K3KD.SG)
falling 6.5% to $6.21 and LDK Solar Co. (LDK) declining 7% to
$1.98.
The Latin American index declined 0.3% to 303.22 and the
emerging-markets index slipped 0.5% to 261.53 as crude-oil futures
prices settled at an eight-month low.
Shares of Colombia's state-run oil company Ecopetrol SA (EC,
ECP.T, ECOPETROL.BO) dropped 0.9% to $57.38.
Write to Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@dowjones.com