Some European companies that trade on the New York Stock Exchange are less than pleased with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which requires all companies, including foreign companies, to show proof that they have in place controls that will assure they are prepared to avert accounting scandals like those that brought down Enron a few years ago.

They have protested that compliance is too costly, they have secured a one-year delay in compliance requirements (U.S. companies began to comply in 2004), and they have threatened to quit trading on the U.S. markets.

A few companies, including four British companies, have actually delisted. None of this seems to have U.S. investors too worried, however: Even though they would be required to sell their shares in any foreign company that delists, U.S. investors have made the average daily value of foreign stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange higher than it has been in five years.