Can the US stock market be Shanghaied?: Evidence of the impact of China's emerging stock market

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the US and China stock markets between 2000 and 2007. This study attempts to categorize the event on February 27, 2007, i.e. 9 per cent plunge in Shanghai stock market followed by the $1.5 trillion global market shake out, as irrational, i.e. herd mentality.Design/methodology/approach – To test for this relationship, the Morgan Stanley Capital International daily price index data was collected from April 15, 2002 to April 12, 2007. Daily Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Nikkei 225 (Nikkei), Hang Seng Index, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index (SSECI) were collected from finance.yahoo.com from January 1, 2000 until April 3, 2007. The running beta and correlation coefficients, defined as the cumulative coefficients, are used to determine the co‐movement of the SSECI and DJIA.Findings – The strength of the relationship between the US and China stock markets has significantly increased since 2005, maybe attributed to Ch...