Are shocks in the stock markets driven by commodity markets? Evidence from Russia-Ukraine war

We study the immediate impact of heightened geopolitical tensions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, on volatility connectedness networks of 18 global stock markets and 5 major commodities. Our analyses reveal a shift in connectedness spillovers during the war: while crude oil (a net shock transmitter before the war) became a net shock receiver, shocks transmitted by crude oil net importers appear to primarily contribute to crude oil turning a net shock receiver, whereas for platinum and wheat, we observe that both net exporters and importers have received volatility shocks. We further dissect the impact of war on the direction of spillovers using panel censored regressions. Employing insights from the analyses, we design portfolios that weigh higher (lower) on stock indices with lower (higher) pairwise connectedness (PCI) to each commodity. We not only find these PCI-based portfolios to exhibit safe-haven properties under extreme geopolitical risk, but they also outperform an equally-weighted portfolio during a period of war. Finally, low-minus-high factors constructed on pairwise connectedness have significant explanatory power for portfolio returns, indicating connectedness as an additional factor for asset pricing models.