The Stock Market's Reaction to Unemployment News: Why Bad News is Usually Good for Stocks

We find that on average, an announcement of rising unemployment is good news for stocks during economic expansions and bad news during economic contractions. Unemployment news bundles three types of primitive information relevant for valuing stocks: information about future interest rates, the equity risk premium, and corporate earnings and dividends. The nature of the information bundle, and hence the relative importance of the three effects, changes over time depending on the state of the economy. For stocks as a group, information about interest rates dominates during expansions and information about future corporate dividends dominates during contractions. THIS STUDY INVESTIGATES THE SHORT-RUN response of stock prices to the arrival of macroeconomic news. The particular news event we consider is the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s (BLS) monthly announcement of the unemployment rate. We establish that the stock market’s response to unemployment news arrival depends on whether the economy is expanding or contracting. On average, the stock market responds positively to news of rising unemployment in expansions, and negatively in contractions. Since the economy is usually in an expansion phase, it follows that the stock market usually rises on the announcement of