Stock-oil comovements through fear, uncertainty, and expectations: Evidence from conditional comoments

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of sentiment as a potential driver of the novel stock-oil (represented by the S&P 500 and West Texas Intermediate futures) dynamics in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC). We study the impact of both sentiment shocks and fluctuations, on the stock-oil time-varying conditional comoments, using the time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR), and the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL), respectively. The findings show that the increasing (asymmetric) effect of sentiments, accounts for the novel post-GFC stock-oil dynamics. As a result, a proactive regulatory framework is needed to shield oil futures against the ever-increasing speculation and financialization.