Chaotic Scaling and Network Turbulence in Crude Oil-Equity Systems Using a Coupled Multiscale Chaos Index

Financial markets often display nonlinear and turbulent dynamics during periods of stress, and crude-oil and global equity systems frequently demonstrate closely connected forms of instability. Earlier studies report multifractality, chaotic features and regime-dependent spillovers across commodities and equities, yet existing approaches rarely succeed in capturing both the intrinsic complexity of oil-market behavior and the changing structure of cross-asset dependence. This limitation reduces the ability to distinguish calm from turbulent regimes and weakens short-horizon risk assessment. The present study introduces a unified framework that quantifies and predicts systemic instability within the coupled oil–equity system. The analysis constructs a crude-oil complexity index based on multifractal fluctuation analysis, permutation and approximate entropy, and Lyapunov-based indicators of chaotic dynamics. At the same time, it develops an information-theoretic network of global equity and energy-sector returns and summarizes its instability through measures of edge turnover, spectral radius, degree entropy and strength dispersion. These components are combined to form the Coupled Multiscale Chaos Index (CMCI), a scalar state variable that distinguishes calm, transitional and chaotic market regimes. Empirical results indicate that Brent and WTI exhibit pronounced multifractality, elevated entropy and positive Lyapunov exponents, while the dependence network becomes more centralized, more clustered and more capable of shock amplification during high-CMCI states. The CMCI moves closely with realized volatility and provides significant predictive content for five-day variance across major global equity benchmarks, with performance superior to models that rely only on macro-financial controls. Out-of-sample evaluation shows that forecasts incorporating measures of complexity record substantially lower MSE and QLIKE losses. The findings indicate that systemic instability reflects the interaction between local chaotic dynamics in crude-oil markets and turbulence in the global dependence network. The CMCI offers a practical early-warning indicator that supports risk management, forecasting and macroprudential supervision.