The Impact of the Public Opinion on Stock Market: Evidence from Weibo in China

We examine the effect of public opinion measured by Weibo tweets’ tone about the COVID-19 virus pneumonia event on firm’s stock return. During January and February 2020, tweets about new virus pneumonia experience an explosive increase with the event continually discussed, and the proportion of positive mood has a gradually growth. Our baseline results show that higher positive tweets ratio will lead to higher stock return, compared to both total tweets’ number or negative tweets’ number. The result will be suggestive to countries and governments.  JEL classification numbers: G30