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Relief Rallies after FOMC Announcements as a Resolution of Uncertainty

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  • Gu, Chen
  • Kurov, Alexander
  • Wolfe, Marketa Halova

Abstract

We find substantial positive average stock returns after FOMC announcements accompanied by the release of the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) and press conference by the Fed Chair. Both SEPs and press conferences contain new information that moves financial markets. We show that several measures of uncertainty are significantly higher on days of FOMC announcements accompanied by SEP and press conference than on announcement days without SEP and press conference. Controlling for changes in uncertainty measured by VIX changes, the positive unconditional mean returns after the FOMC announcements with SEP and press conference disappear. We also find that stocks correlated with market uncertainty shocks have higher returns on days of FOMC meetings with SEP and press conference. These results suggest that the positive post-announcement stock market returns are related to resolution of uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Gu, Chen & Kurov, Alexander & Wolfe, Marketa Halova, 2018. "Relief Rallies after FOMC Announcements as a Resolution of Uncertainty," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-18.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:empfin:v:49:y:2018:i:c:p:1-18
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jempfin.2018.08.003
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    Cited by:

    1. Benchimol, Jonathan & Saadon, Yossi & Segev, Nimrod, 2023. "Stock market reactions to monetary policy surprises under uncertainty," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    2. Kurov, Alexander & Olson, Eric & Zaynutdinova, Gulnara R., 2022. "When does the fed care about stock prices?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    3. Gu, Chen & Chen, Denghui & Stan, Raluca & Shen, Aizhong, 2022. "It is not just What you say, but How you say it: Why tonality matters in central bank communication," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 216-231.
    4. Michael D Bauer & Aeimit Lakdawala & Philippe Mueller, 2022. "Market-Based Monetary Policy Uncertainty," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(644), pages 1290-1308.
    5. Kurov, Alexander & Wolfe, Marketa Halova & Gilbert, Thomas, 2021. "The disappearing pre-FOMC announcement drift," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    6. Smales, L.A., 2021. "Macroeconomic news and treasury futures return volatility: Do treasury auctions matter?," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    7. Chen Gu & Xu Guo & Alexander Kurov & Raluca Stan, 2022. "The information content of the volatility index options trading volume," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(9), pages 1721-1737, September.
    8. Indriawan, Ivan & Jiao, Feng & Tse, Yiuman, 2021. "The FOMC announcement returns on long-term US and German bond futures," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    9. Yao, Wei & Alexiou, Constantinos, 2024. "On the transmission mechanism between the inventory arbitrage activity, speculative activity and the commodity price under the US QE policy: Evidence from a TVP-VAR model," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 1054-1072.
    10. Yun, Jaesun & Kwon, Kyung Yoon, 2023. "Biweekly performance of low-risk anomalies over the FOMC cycle," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PC).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Summary of economic projections; Monetary policy; FOMC meetings; Communication; Stock returns; Uncertainty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation

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