Purpose -This study examines the initial two-week excess performance relative to the S&P 500 Index of American Depository Receipts (ADRs) listed on the New York Stock Exchange from January 1987 to September 2001 to determine whether short-term wealth effects exist. Design/methodology/approach -Standard intial public offering methodology is used to test for significant excess performance. Findings -Results for the entire sample of 281 ADRs suggest the initial excess performance was not significant. However, after segmenting the sample, emerging market ADRs significantly outperformed the S&P 500 by over three per cent while developed market ADRs underperformed by 0.92 per cent. Also, Latin American ADRs outperformed the market index by nearly five per cent during the first two weeks after issue while European ADRs underperformed the market by nearly one per cent. Asia Pacific ADRs underperformed the S&P 500, but not significantly in the early trading.Research limitations/implications -The findings suggest emerging market ADRs, particularly those from the Latin American region, perform well in the early trading while developed market ADRs do not. Future research may identify variables that affect or explain ADR excess returns. Originality/value -The paper provides insights into the types of ADRs that accumulate wealth in the short term investment horizon.

The finance literature extensively documents the existence of stock market anomalies, such as the January effect, the day of the week effect and the small firm effect. Many of these anomalies were discovered or clarified while investigating what has come to be known as the overreaction hypothesis. This paper examines investor overreaction to going concern audit opinion announcements made in the major financial press. The evidence presented suggests the sell-off by investors on the announcement date is followed by a major buy-back of the announcing firms' shares over the next few days. For the 79 announcing firms in the sample spanning 1984 to 1996, nearly 70% of the average losses on the announcement date are recovered the five days following going concern audit opinion announcements.

We examine whether intra–industry information transfers from going–concern audit opinion announcements create contagion or competitive stock price reactions for other real estate firms operating in the same line of business. Using returns from publicly-traded land subdivision/development firms and Real Estate Investment Trusts, we find modest evidence supporting a competitive effect among rival firms as a result of another real estate firm announcing the receipt of a Going Concern Opinion (GCO) from its independent auditors. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006Going concern opinions, Contagion effect, Competitive effect,

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