Forecasting the Asian stock market volatility: Evidence from WTI and INE oil futures

This study investigates whether China's crude oil futures (INE) and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) markets hold valuable information for estimating the realized volatility of seven Asian stock markets. This study has several notable findings. First, China's oil futures can trigger forecast accuracy for three equity indices (Nikkei 225, NSEI, and FT Straits Times), whereas WTI helps forecast the volatility of the two indices (KSE 100 and KOSPI). Second, comparing China's crude oil futures with WTI's crude oil futures, we find that the former could be an effective indicator for all seven Asian stock markets during a high-volatility period, while WTI information is helpful in forecasting the volatility of the KSE 100, NSEI, and FT Strait Times during the low-volatility period. Further, information of both oil futures is ineffective for the Hang Seng and SSEC equity indices. Our results are robust in several robustness checks, including alternative evaluation methods, recursive window approach, and alternative realized measures, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Laughing all the way to the lockdown: On humor, optimism, and well-being during COVID-19.

The present paper examined the contribution of optimism and humor styles to well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Furthermore, we examined whether these direct associations were mediated by two common COVID-19 challenges--work-family interface (WFI) and COVID-19 fears. Israeli employees (N = 356) completed an online survey during lockdown restrictions (69% women, 57.20% held academic degrees, M age = 30.70, age-range = 20-61). Both optimism and adaptive humor revealed a positive and direct effect on well-being. Furthermore, mediation analyses indicated that both fear of COVID-19 and WFI mediated the direct associations between optimism and well-being, as well as the direct associations between maladaptive humor and well-being, whereas WFI mediated the association between adaptive humor and well-being. These findings stress the need to adapt interventions derived from positive psychology to enhance well-being during these challenging times of COVID-19.