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Pulling back the curtain, does news about a firm’s economic events before the earnings announcement help investors contextualize earnings surprise?

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  • Deng, Justin

Abstract

This paper examines how news released throughout the prior quarter helps investors contextualize future earnings surprises. I find that news detailing specific firm events, or “event-based news releases,” in the quarter leading up to the earnings announcement reduces post-earnings announcement drift (+2, +60), but, interestingly, that Form 8-Ks are ineffective in reducing this mispricing. To investigate this difference, I find that event-based news releases without an associated Form 8-K are much more likely to disclose events related to the firm’s core operations and specifically product and client announcements compared with event-based news releases that have an associated Form 8-K. I also compare total news releases with event-based news releases and find that event-based news releases specifically are associated with a reduction in post-earnings announcement drift. Lastly, I find that event-based news releases are more effective at reducing drift for firms with less disaggregated income statements and prior to the filing of the Form 10-Q/Form 10-K.

Suggested Citation

  • Deng, Justin, 2025. "Pulling back the curtain, does news about a firm’s economic events before the earnings announcement help investors contextualize earnings surprise?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jocaae:v:21:y:2025:i:3:s1815566925000256
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcae.2025.100478
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    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M48 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Government Policy and Regulation

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