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By Alun John, Ankur Banerjee, Manya Saini and Nupur Anand NEW YORK/LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -U.S. bank stocks rebounded on Friday, clawing back some losses after fears over bad loans triggered a global selloff that swept through European and Asian markets earlier in the day. The weakness hit Wall Street, with main equities indexes seeing a mixed open before inching higher in choppy trading, as investors stayed on edge about banks. The concerns added to anxiety about escalating U.S.-China trade tensions and the global economic outlook. The U.S. KBW Regional Banking Index closed down 6.3% on Thursday. It was last up 1%, while an index tracking large-cap rivals was up marginally. Investors in bank stocks have grown jittery. After a string of credit scares and surprise writedowns since 2023, confidence has gotten another knock in recent weeks from auto bankruptcies and alleged fraud that triggered losses at some banks. "Markets have been gripped by a sense of fear and panic in the last couple of days," said Timothy Coffey, associate director of depository research at Janney Montgomery Scott. "There are different issues that are being conflated into one big issue about credit concerns." Pressure on bank stocks "is likely to continue, this panic is like a fever. Once it enters the system, it takes a while to leave." The credit issues have fanned investor unease over stretched valuations in global markets, leaving them alert to any signs of stress. Stocks have held up well, and the economy has remained resilient despite uncertainty surrounding some of President Donald Trump's policies, including tariffs. IDIOSYNCRATIC RISKS? Investors are assessing whether recent strains in U.S. credit markets could affect valuations across markets, after an overnight Wall Street selloff rippled through Asia and Europe and cast a spotlight on the AI-fueled stock rally that some fear may have inflated a bubble. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said earlier this week about credit markets, "When you see one cockroach, there are probably more, and so everyone should be forewarned." Market participants have taken note of Dimon's comment, pausing to wonder if sees signs of broader trouble that are not visible to others, one industry executive said. "There is a nervousness now after the First Brands and Tricolor bankruptcies, then a third issue seems to confirm fears that there are a lot of subprime assets," said Brian Mulberry, senior client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management. "It appears that these are isolated cases of fraud where assets were being double booked as collateral for multiple debt structures." White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Friday that banks have ample reserves and that he was optimistic that credit markets could stay ahead of the curve. He added in an interview with Fox Business Network that Trump administration officials led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve's Michelle Bowman are "cleaning things up right now," without providing further details.     Meanwhile, another senior industry executive said that credit problems do not appear to be widespread, and recent concerns stem from a series of fraud cases. The banking sector's exposure to two recent U.S. auto bankruptcies has rekindled concerns about lending standards more than two years after Silicon Valley Bank's failure triggered broader turmoil.  "In the post SVB world, regulators have been asking banks about their commercial real estate exposure, the percentage of their uninsured deposits, deposit strategy, how they are set up at the discount window and those conversations have not changed," said Dan Hartman, a lawyer at Nutter. REGIONAL U.S. BANKS REBOUND Strong earnings from Truist Financial, Regions Financial, and Fifth Third bolstered investor sentiment, sending most U.S. regional banks higher. "The few recent corporate bankruptcies appear to be isolated cases, with the raft of bank earnings reports this week actually noting overall improving credit quality in the third quarter," said Stephen Biggar, director of financial research at Argus Research. Zions Bancorp, at the heart of the investor scrutiny, recovered 4%, after closing down 13%. Western Alliance was up 1.5% after losing roughly 11% on Thursday.  Jefferies shares jumped 5% following a steep drop in the previous session. The latest selloff came after Zions said it would take a $50 million loss on two commercial and industrial loans, while Western Alliance disclosed it had initiated a lawsuit alleging a borrower. BROADER MARKET IMPACT  European banks fell almost 3%, with Deutsche Bank and Barclays sliding around 6%, and Societe Generale down 4.6%, after financial firms in Asia, especially Japanese banks and insurers sank. "What we see in the banks selling off overnight in the U.S., Asia wakes up to it, Europe wakes up to it, and so it spreads," said TD Securities head of global macro strategy James Rossiter.    U.S. banks borrowed nearly $15 billion from the Federal Reserve's Standing Repo Facility (SRF) on Wednesday and Thursday, the largest borrowing over a two-day period since the Covid-19 pandemic. On Friday morning, however, banks did not tap the repo facility, although they get another chance to do so in the afternoon. The SRF acts as a liquidity backstop for potential funding shortfalls. Introduced in July 2021 in response to the pandemic, the Fed's facility provides twice-daily overnight cash loans in exchange for eligible collateral such as U.S. Treasuries. "The market is clearly priced for perfection," said Bo Pei, analyst at US Tiger Securities. "This leaves sentiment vulnerable, so even isolated negative headlines can trigger outsized reactions."  (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore and Alun John in London and Manya Saini in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Kevin Buckland, Stella Qiu, Dhara Ranasinghe, Jose Joel, Pritam Biswas and Medha Singh. Editing by Mark Heinrich, Mark Potter, Lananh Nguyen and Nick Zieminski)

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By Rachel More and Nick Carey BERLIN (Reuters) -Porsche's decision to bring in ex-McLaren boss Michael Leiters to revive the luxury German carmaker was welcomed by investors, although they have no illusions about the challenge he faces. Leiters will take over from CEO Oliver Blume from the start of 2026 as the carmaker struggles with U.S. tariffs, sales slumping in China and a costly strategy reversal to ditch electric vehicles in favour of the combustion engines that previously made the company highly profitable. "It's a bit of a poisoned chalice," former Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer, who knows Leiters, said of the top job at Porsche. "He's certainly going to head into a storm," Palmer said. "It wouldn't be easy for anybody… but I think Michael has the experience." Leiters is a well-known figure in the sports car world after roles at McLaren, Porsche and Ferrari. During his time as SUV director at Porsche, from 2000 to 2013, he was instrumental in developing the carmaker's Cayenne model. Since then, the 54-year-old has served as chief technology officer at Ferrari and CEO at McLaren, a role he gave up earlier this year following the company's merger with EV start-up Forseven. Porsche said on Friday its supervisory board had appointed Leiters to replace Blume, who faced increasing investor pressure to leave the job and focus on parent Volkswagen, where he also serves as CEO. Porsche shares rose 1.6% on the news. Blume, at the helm for a decade, has overseen a disastrous era for Porsche since its listing to great fanfare three years ago. Its profit margin has shrivelled from 18% in 2022 to a best-case target of just 2% this year, while its shares have fallen by more than half and it tumbled out of Germany's blue-chip DAX index last month. SALES SLUMP IN KEY MARKET CHINA The crisis is playing out acutely in China, the carmaker's most important market, where sales have slumped since hitting a record of 95,671 just four years ago – nearly a third of its 2021 global total. Porsche's China sales were down 26% in the first three quarters of this year from the same period in 2024 and accounted for just 15% of the luxury carmaker's total, as consumers rejected the company's electric vehicles in favour of sporty alternatives from Chinese automakers like BYD and Xiaomi. Porsche walked back its EV plans in September in favour of hybrids and combustion-engine models, a reversal that forced Volkswagen to take a 5.1 billion euro ($5.96 billion) hit. Pal Skirta, an analyst at private bank Metzler, said that Blume's early bet on EVs has been a strategic mistake. But he said this could be fixed if Porsche delivers on promises to deliver a new combustion-engine SUV by the end of the decade. An SUV expert like Leiters is "a perfect fit" for this task, Skirta said. NEW BOSS SEEN AS GOOD FIT AS CRISIS MANAGER With Porsche badly in need of products people want to buy in large numbers, some investors have cautiously welcomed the changeover. Having led McLaren through difficult times, Leiters is seen as a good fit as Porsche's new crisis manager. McLaren has been loss-making for years, but according to regulatory filings the company significantly narrowed its full-year loss for 2024 to 135 million pounds ($180.78 million) from 843 million pounds in 2023. "Someone is returning to Porsche who is not only familiar with the company, but who has already been confronted with difficult situations in other positions," Hendrik Schmidt, head of governance at Porsche investor DWS. Part of the new Porsche boss's job will be slimming down the company's 40,000 workforce by 1,900 by 2029. Porsche's restructuring needs are expected to be more far-reaching, with the company currently assessing a second package of cost-saving measures – something which unions will also have a big say on. As an outsider, Leiters should have the freedom to take difficult decisions, former Aston Martin CEO Palmer told Reuters. "Whether Porsche allows him, it remains to be seen," he added. ($1 = 0.7468 pounds) (Additional reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Editing by Susan Fenton and Jane Merriman)

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(Reuters) -Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) on Friday urged Tesla shareholders to vote against CEO Elon Musk's proposed $1 trillion performance award, citing concerns over excessive compensation and governance risks. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last month, Tesla's board proposed a $1 trillion compensation plan for Musk in what it described as the largest corporate pay package in history, setting ambitious performance targets and aiming to address his push for greater control over the company. The vote on Musk's pay package is scheduled for early November. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

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(Reuters) -U.S. regional bank Fifth Third Bancorp reported a 14% jump in third-quarter profit on Friday on the back of robust fee income, but booked a $178 million loss related to the bankruptcy of auto dealer Tricolor.   Broad-based growth across Fifth Third's fee businesses lifted non-interest income to $781 million in the quarter, up 10% from a year earlier.   Wealth management and asset management fee revenue surged 11%, while mortgage banking fee revenue jumped 16%. Shares of the bank were up 1% in early afternoon trading. The stock had fallen 4.5% this year as of Thursday's close.    TRICOLOR LOSS While the broader U.S. economy has remained resilient, fears about credit quality at some regional banks, including Zions Bancorporation and Western Alliance, triggered a fall in U.S. bank stocks on Thursday. Fifth Third had disclosed last month it gave a $200 million asset-backed finance loan to Tricolor, which filed for bankruptcy last month and moved to liquidate its business. "We decided to disclose the potential loss as quickly as possible", Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence said in a phone interview. He said the bank is comfortable with its risk after a portfolio review and noted that profits increased even after the losses. Net charge-offs, or debts that are unlikely to be recovered, totaled $339 million in the quarter, including a $178 million loss related to the impairment of the loan to Tricolor.  INTEREST INCOME GROWTH Net interest income — the difference between what banks earn on loans and pay on deposits — rose 7% to $1.53 billion in the quarter, thanks to lower deposit costs and fixed-rate asset repricing. Earlier this month, Fifth Third struck a $10.9 billion all-stock deal to buy regional lender Comerica, the biggest U.S. bank transaction this year which will create the nation's ninth-largest lender. Fifth Third's profit jumped to $608 million, or 91 cents per share, in the three months ended September 30, compared with $532 million, or 78 cents per share, a year earlier.  (Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer in New York; Editing by Sahal Muhammed and Cynthia Osterman)

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ZURICH (Reuters) -Swiss Economy Minister Guy Parmelin said on Friday he had spoken briefly to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about the United States' 39% tariffs on Switzerland, but he gave no indication of progress on reducing the levies. Speaking to Swiss television, Parmelin said that contact between the Swiss and U.S. governments was ongoing on various levels and that he had spoken to Bessent for "a few minutes". "But that was very brief," Parmelin told Swiss national broadcaster SRF during a visit to Washington. "We're staying in contact, including at a technical level. The federal cabinet will communicate as soon as we have progress to report." Parmelin was also asked whether he believed his country could reach a deal with the United States by the end of this month. He responded by reiterating that contact was ongoing. "Again, it's not possible to say more today," he said. U.S. President Donald Trump's decision in August to impose the duties on Switzerland stunned the country, which eliminated its own industrial tariffs last year. Trump argued the tariffs were justified by the U.S. trade deficit with Switzerland. Since then, Switzerland's government has been working to lower the tariffs, assembling a package of measures aimed at cutting the U.S. deficit and increasing Swiss investment in the United States. But it has yet to strike a deal with Trump. (Reporting by Dave Graham and Oliver Hirt; Editing by Sarah Marsh)

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