COVID-19 and March 2020 Stock Market Crash. Evidence from S&P1500
14 Pages Posted: 29 Apr 2020 Last revised: 10 Sep 2020
Date Written: May 5, 2020
Abstract
This paper investigates the US stock market performance during the crash of March 2020 triggered by COVID-19. We find that natural gas, food, healthcare, and software stocks earn high positive returns, whereas equity values in petroleum, real estate, entertainment, and hospitality sectors fall dramatically. Moreover, loser stocks exhibit extreme asymmetric volatility that correlates negatively with stock returns. Companies react in a variety of different ways to the COVID-19 revenue shock. The analysis of the 8K and DEF14A filings of poorest performers reveals departures of senior executives, remuneration cuts, and (most surprisingly) newly approved cash bonuses and salary increases.
Keywords: COVID-19, coronavirus, stock market crash, stock market performance, extreme volatility, S&P1500, SP1500
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation