Title: Social media sentiment, tariffs, and international equity pricing

Authors: Jesus Carmona; Natalya Delcoure; Francisco Haces Fernandez

Addresses: College of Business Administration, Texas A&M University – Kingsville, 700 University Blvd, Kingsville, TX 78363, USA ' College of Business Administration, Texas A&M University – Kingsville, 700 University Blvd, Kingsville, TX 78363, USA ' College of Business Administration, Texas A&M University – Kingsville, 700 University Blvd, Kingsville, TX 78363, USA

Abstract: Previous research has evaluated the impact of social media on financial market performance. This research investigates the imposition of Trump's trade tariffs and sentiments of President Trump's trade tariff-related tweets on international equity using exchange-traded funds (ETFs). We document that tweets move international equity prices, affect their volatility, and draw market attention. In addition, the impact of Twitter - a social media outlet allowing users to curate information, update followers, and report news in real time to a wide audience - is a function of event randomness, tweets' novelty, and whether an 'influencer' uses this channel of communication to post relevant tweets.

Keywords: social media; tariffs; international equity pricing; exchange-traded funds; ETFs; sentiment analysis; event study methodology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEF.2020.110298

International Journal of Electronic Finance, 2020 Vol.10 No.1/2, pp.93 - 115

Received: 08 Oct 2019
Accepted: 18 Jun 2020
Published online: 13 Oct 2020 *

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