The Impact of Hurricanes on Investor Sentiment and Stock Market Returns

In this paper, we employ an event study methodology to examine the impact of hurricanes on investor sentiment and stock market returns. Our results show that there is a significant decrease in stock returns on the day hurricanes make landfall and one day prior. Additionally, we observe that not all industries are significantly impacted and that firms with large market capitalization are least impacted by hurricanes. Further, we find a significant increase in investor fear on the day of hurricane landfalls, and a significant decrease in investor sentiment during the week prior to landfalls. These results suggest that hurricanes and the anticipation of these storms have a negative and significant impact on both stock market returns and investor sentiment.