Stock Market Evidence on the International Transmission Channels of US Monetary Policy Surprises

We reveal the economic sources of the stock market responses of 40 countries to US monetary policy surprises by decomposing stock market returns into components reflecting investors’ revisions in expectations (news) about future cash flows and different components of discount rates. US monetary policy surprises have persistent effects on foreign stock markets because they primarily constitute cash flow news. This finding pertains to different measures of the surprises. The liquidity of stock markets and the perceived country risk affect the sensitivities of unexpected stock market returns to the US monetary policy surprises while other country characteristics, e.g., the exchange rate regime, have no effect.