The power of bad: The negativity bias in Australian consumer sentiment announcements on stock returns

Shumi Akhtar, Robert Faff, Barry Oliver*, Avanidhar Subrahmanyam

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

98 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper examines the equity market reaction to the monthly release of Australian consumer sentiment news. Our results indicate that consumer sentiment has valuable information content. Further, we document a version of the " negativity effect" (from the psychology literature) in which, upon announcement of bad (good) sentiment news, the equity market experiences a significant negative (no) announcement day effect. Notably, we find that the market recovers from the bad news shock relatively quickly post-announcement. The results are robust to a broad range of additional tests.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1239-1249
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Banking and Finance
Volume35
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2011
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The power of bad: The negativity bias in Australian consumer sentiment announcements on stock returns'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this