LONDON -- European equity markets are trading higher Tuesday, although volumes remain relatively thin during the summer holiday period. Some confidence has returned surrounding European peripheral countries after Spain's borrowing cost slid in an auction of 12- and 18-month notes this morning, while tomorrow Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister and head of the European finance ministers, visits Greece to listen to a request for a two-year extension to the country's fiscal adjustment program. Futures trading has the U.S. markets also seeing some decent performance, with premarket trade showing the S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC) set to open 0.2% higher.
Even with these gains, however, there are some individual names that are outperforming. Here are three ADRs that are set to beat the S&P today.
ING Groep (NYSE: ING)
The Dutch financier is up 2.5% today, helped by two successful 10-year bond sales during the past few sessions that allowed it to raise 17 billion euros. This follows sales of two 20-year, zero-interest, U.S.-denominated bonds at the start of last week, which raised an additional $60 million. It also emerged last week that the company's proposed alternative to divesting its Dutch mortgage-lending arm WestandUtrecht, whereby a slimmed-down version of the unit would be incorporated into ING's insurance business, was not likely to pass European antitrust laws.
Aviva (LSE: AV.L)
The insurer is up 2.1% in London today as light trading volumes and broader market confidence push demand. Last week the company said it bought a Spanish wind farm with German Investor SachsenFonds to help offset its lower returns on bonds. The Almatret wind farm is a 49.4 megawatt unit in Lerida, Catalonia, and was bought from its previous owner, Element Power, for an undisclosed sum.
Barclays (LSE: BARC.L) (NYSE: BCS)
The U.K. bank is up 2% today after it said it was in talks with South Africa's Asba Group to combine the two companies' African units. The banks said no deal was yet certain, and if it does go through, it wouldn't be completed until 2013. Barclays already owns a 54% stake in Asba, bought in 2005 for $4.5 billion in an effort to expand its emerging-market business. Barclays made 910 million pounds from its African assets, including its Asba share, in 2011, and the company said it would maintain its subsidiaries in Kenya and Botswana.
Despite the ongoing eurozone troubles, this morning's European trading did provide some winners -- and perhaps some European buying opportunities. Indeed, legendary investor Warren Buffett has recently spent more than $1 billion buying the stock of a prominent European large cap. If you want to know why Buffett has bought into Europe, this special Motley Fool report -- "The One European Share Warren Buffett Loves" -- reveals everything, including the price he paid. You can download the report today for free.
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