International stocks trading in New York closed mostly lower on Friday.

The S&P/BNY Mellon index of American depositary receipts fell 0.6% to 161.02. The European index declined 0.5% to 147.49. The Asian index declined 0.8% to 203.43. And the emerging-markets index fell 1.2% to 341.74.

Meanwhile, the Latin American index edged up 0.01% to 201.31.

NatWest Group PLC was among those whose ADRs traded actively.


GlaxoSmithKline PLC said Friday that it has paused enrollment and vaccination in a Phase 3 trial evaluating its potential respiratory syncytial virus maternal vaccine candidate, as well as two other trials investigating the drug candidate in pregnant women. The U.K. pharmaceutical major said the decision was made after a recommendation from the Independent Data Monitoring Committee and based on an observation from a safety assessment. The decision doesn't affect the AReSVi 006 Phase 3 trial, it said. ADRs fell 0.7% to $43.04.


KT Corp., South Korea's largest telecommunications provider, has agreed to pay $6.3 million to settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission action over alleged bribes paid in South Korea and Vietnam. ADRs closed 0.9% lower at $13.49.


NatWest Group PLC swung to an operating pretax profit and net profit for the fourth quarter of 2021, with both coming in ahead of market views, and said it intends to launch a share-buyback program of up to 750 million pounds ($1.02 billion). Investors might have been expecting more, given rising interest rates, Hargreaves Lansdown said. "Natwest's tone is one of reserved optimism, despite ongoing uncertainty. Heightened mortgage demand is buoying lending levels and therefore net-interest margins. While the fundamentals of the U.K. housing market remain intact, we may well have passed the demand peak, meaning other areas will have to pick up the slack," Hargreaves said. "Given the disappointing results from the group's non-interest related income, its ability to do this in the short term has been called into question." ADRs fell 1.4% to $6.39.


Sanofi SA said Friday that it will stop a Phase 3 trial for Dupixent in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria. The French pharmaceutical company said an interim analysis of the trial, conducted on patients who were refractory to omalizumab, showed the drug didn't reach statistical significance for its primary endpoints. ADRs fell 0.7% to $52.50. 


-- WSJ Staff

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-18-22 1652ET