Covid-19’s adverse effects on a stock market index

Abstract

We perform a panel data analysis of 14 daily stock market indices during 01/21/2020 – 06/30/2020 to document a stock market index’s negative responsiveness to Covid-19’s spread variations. We find that a stock market index’s elasticity estimate is −0.028 (p-value <0.01) for local cumulative confirmed cases. As a stock market index tends to move with Covid-19’s local and non-local spreads, international efforts of containment are expected to pare stock market losses.