Volatility transmission dynamics between energy and financial indices of emerging markets: a comparison between the subprime crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the volatility transmission between an energy stock index and a financial stock index in emerging markets during recent high instability periods. The study considers the impact of both the period under analysis and the data frequency on the direction and intensity of the contagion, as well as the effect of the potential spillovers on the risk measures. These questions still lack definitive answers and have become more relevant in a context of financially unsettling events such as COVID-19 crises. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs an extension of the dynamic conditional correlation (DCC) model that allows for the time-varying dependence relationship between the variables. This dependence is analyzed at daily, weekly and monthly basis using data from the Bloomberg platform on energy and stock market indices for emerging markets between 2001 and 2021. Findings: The results for a sample spanning from 2001 to mid-2021 show bidirectional volatility transmission on a daily basis, whereas only evidence of volatility transmission from the financial to the energy exists for weekly and monthly frequencies. However, considering different subsamples of daily data, the authors only find volatility transmission from financial (energy) index to the energy (financial) during the Great Recession (COVID-19) as a consequence of the different source of the shock and transmission channels. Originality/value: This study reveals that volatility transmission between energy and stocks in emerging markets has changed and presents a unidirectional pattern from energy to financial markets during the COVID-19 period in contrast to calm and the sub-prime crisis intervals. These results differ from previous studies, focused on global markets, that show bidirectional spillovers during this period. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Examining contagion effects between global crude oil prices and the Southeast Asian stock markets during the COVID-19 pandemic

Many previous studies identify the contagion effect among various types of assets, defined as the increase in correlation of these assets during a financial or economic crisis. During the COVID-19 outbreak, a historic fall in global fuel demand and oil prices has been witnessed. Because crude oil has a strategic position among the export products of the Southeast Asian economies, even a tiny global oil price change leads to a plunge in these stock markets. This study addresses the spillovers of the volatility between the West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices and stock indices across six ASEAN emerging economies. Besides, the study examines whether a contagion connecting the global energy prices and these stock markets exists during the coronavirus pandemic. The empirical results are acquired by applying the Bayesian test for equality of means on the dynamic conditional correlations computed from DCC-GARCH models. The findings present positive volatility transmission from crude oil prices toward these emerging equity markets. During the health crisis, co-movements intensify, indicating the occurrence of contagion effects. The empirical results provide valid implications for policymakers and international investors because a precise volatility forecast is vital for managing portfolio risk. © Mien Thi Ngoc Nguyen, 2023.

VIX and major agricultural future markets: dynamic linkage and time-frequency relations around the COVID-19 outbreak

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the volatility spillover and lead-lag relationship between the Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index (VIX) and the major agricultural future markets before and during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.Design/methodology/approachThe methods used were the vector autoregression-Baba, Engle, Kraft and Kroner-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity method, the Wald test and wavelet transform method.FindingsThe findings indicate that prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, there was a two-way volatility spillover impact between the majority of the sample markets. In comparison, volatility transmission between the VIX index and the agricultural future market was significantly lower following the COVID-19 outbreak, the authors observed greater coherence at higher frequencies than at lower frequencies, implying that the interdependence between the two VIX indices and the agricultural future market was stronger over a longer time-frequency domain and the VIX's signalling effect on various agricultural future prices after the COVID-19 outbreak was significantly lower.Originality/valueThe authors conducted the first comprehensive investigation of the VIX's correlation with major agricultural futures, especially during COVID-19. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the risk transmission mechanism between the VIX and major agricultural commodities futures contracts. And our findings have significant implications for investors and portfolio managers, as well as for policymakers who are concerned about the price of agricultural futures.

Impact of global macroeconomic factors on spillovers among Australian sector markets: Fresh findings from a wavelet-based analysis

This study investigates the spillover dynamics among 10 Australian sectoral indices and their connectedness to global factors, including the WTI crude oil price, oil market volatility, Australian exchange rate, U.S. stock market volatility index and Infectious Disease Tracker Index. Using data from May 14, 2007 to March 31, 2022, this study applies the time-varying parameter vector autoregressive model to study their static and dynamic connectedness, wavelet coherence analysis to investigate the time-frequency co-movement of global macroeconomic factors with Australian sector stock indices and wavelet decomposition-based Granger causality. The results show that aggressive stocks (Industrials, Consumer Discretionary and Financials) are net transmitters, while defensive stocks (Health, Information Technology, Communication and Utilities) are net receivers of spillovers. The coronavirus pandemic has increased systemic risk, causing radical changes in net connectedness. Additionally, global macroeconomic factors drive the connectedness of the Australian sectoral indices, with oil and exchange rates moving in phase, and oil volatility, stock volatility and the Infectious Disease Tracker Index moving in antiphase. Global stock and oil market volatility has a significant impact on the Australian sector's returns over short-, medium- and long-term horizons. This study provides valuable insights to investors and policymakers by carefully examining the relationships between global factors and Australian sectoral indices. © 2023 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Volatility Spillover between Germany, France, and Cee Stock Markets

The CEE stock markets are more and more integrated in the European financial markets. The growth of the integration of financial markets favours the volatility and return spillover between them. The current study analyses the volatility spillover among the stock markets in the countries from Central and East Europe (CEE) and Germany and France with the aim to identify the pos-sibilities of reduction of a portfolio risk. A special attention is granted to the analysis during the pandemic caused by COVID-19. The time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model on which is based the methodology proposed by Antonakakis and Gabauer (2017) is used to estimate the evolution in time of volatility spillover. The empirical results obtained for the period January 2001 - September 2021 highlight the increase in volatility spillover between the countries analysed when the pandemic caused by COVID-19 was confirmed. The lack of volatility integration of the markets analysed enables the making of arbitrages in order to reduce the risk of a portfolio. The results obtained are important in the management of financial asset portfolios.

Time-frequency volatility transmission among energy commodities and financial markets during the COVID-19 pandemic: A Novel TVP-VAR frequency connectedness approach.

This paper investigates the dynamic volatility spillover among energy commodities and financial markets in pre-and mid-COVID-19 periods by utilizing a novel TVP-VAR frequency connectedness approach and the QMLE-based realized volatility data. Our findings indicate that the volatility spillover is mainly driven by long-term components and prominently time-varying with a remarkable but short-lived surge during the COVID-19 outbreak. We further spot that WTI and NGS are prevailingly transmitting and being exposed to the system volatility simultaneously, especially during the global pandemic, suggesting the energy commodity market becoming more integrated with, more influential and meanwhile vulnerable to global financial markets.

VIX and major agricultural future markets: dynamic linkage and time-frequency relations around the COVID-19 outbreak

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the volatility spillover and lead-lag relationship between the Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index (VIX) and the major agricultural future markets before and during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Design/methodology/approach The methods used were the vector autoregression-Baba, Engle, Kraft and Kroner-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity method, the Wald test and wavelet transform method. Findings The findings indicate that prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, there was a two-way volatility spillover impact between the majority of the sample markets. In comparison, volatility transmission between the VIX index and the agricultural future market was significantly lower following the COVID-19 outbreak, the authors observed greater coherence at higher frequencies than at lower frequencies, implying that the interdependence between the two VIX indices and the agricultural future market was stronger over a longer time-frequency domain and the VIX's signalling effect on various agricultural future prices after the COVID-19 outbreak was significantly lower. Originality/value The authors conducted the first comprehensive investigation of the VIX's correlation with major agricultural futures, especially during COVID-19. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the risk transmission mechanism between the VIX and major agricultural commodities futures contracts. And our findings have significant implications for investors and portfolio managers, as well as for policymakers who are concerned about the price of agricultural futures.

Dependence dynamics of stock markets during COVID-19

Stock markets have exhibited increased returns connectedness during the COVID-19 period. We examine the returns dependence among 42 stock markets classified under various emerging and developed groupings. We apply several dependence measures to examine the returns connectedness among the markets. Our results show that stock markets from the G-7 and Emerging Frontier and Asian (EFA) region exhibit high connectedness with other international markets, while Middle East and North African (MENA) and Latin American (LA) stock markets offer high diversification opportunities through low returns connectedness. The returns coherence of Central and East European (CEE) and G-7 markets increase significantly during the COVID-19 period which supports the hypothesis of contagion. However, during the pandemic MENA stock markets (excluding Greece) and most EFA markets (excluding China, Singapore and Korea) remain less cointegrated with other international equity markets. Our results have implications for individual and institutional investors, fund managers and other financial market stakeholders.

Rethinking Financial Contagion: Information Transmission Mechanism During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Rapidly growing numbers of empirical papers assessing the financial effects of COVID-19 pandemic triggered an urgent need for a study summarising the existing knowledge of contagion phenomenon. This paper provides a review of conceptual approaches to studying financial contagion at four levels of information transmission: (i) Catalyst of contagion;(ii) Media Attention;(iii) Spillover effect at financial markets;(iv) Macroeconomic fundamentals. We discuss the unique characteristics of COVID-19 crisis and demonstrate how this shock differs from previous crises and to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic can be considered a ‘black swan’ event. We also review the main concepts, definitions and methodologies that are frequently, but inconsistently, used in contagion literature to unveil the existing problems and ambiguities in this popular area of research. This paper will help researchers to conduct coherent and methodologically rigorous research on the impact of COVID-19 on financial markets during the pandemic and its aftermath.

The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on volatility transmission between the U.S. and emerging asia stock markets: A case study of tiger cub economies

The globalization in financial markets has highlighted the importance of a clear understanding of volatility transmission among equity markets in different countries. This paper looks into the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volatility transmission between the U.S. stock market and five emerging equity markets called Tiger Cub economies in Southeast Asia. As the result of the dynamic conditional correlation GARCH (DCC-GARCH), the U.S. stock market’s volatility links positively to these smaller economies’ volatilities, and these linkages become stronger during the pandemic. We also find evidence of statistically significant co-volatility across five Tiger Cub markets. Due to the increase in financial globalization over the last few decades, the finding has relevant implications for policymakers, international investors, and portfolio managers. © 2021 by De La Salle University.