Co-movements and contagion between international stock index futures markets

In this paper, we explore the co-movements and contagion between six international stock index futures markets. In contrast to the empirical studies which dominate the literature and focus on the case of spot markets, relatively little is known about the returns and the volatility dynamics of the futures markets. To address this deficiency, we employ a time–frequency approach and discover that the co-movements between the international markets manifest especially in the long run. Nevertheless, the contagion phenomenon associated with the very short-run horizon is present in particular in the case of the European markets, due to their higher level of integration. The rolling wavelet correlation increases after severe turbulence episodes, but fluctuates over time and across frequencies. Our findings can guide the international investors in stock index futures markets to accurately diversify their portfolio in crisis periods.