Examining the Impact of COVID-19 on Stock Market Indices and Cryptocurrencies: A Comparative Study of Egypt and USA

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the link between the well-known traditional finance and economic asset class and the digital currencies. The present study is undertaken to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 on the Financial Markets and the four major Cryptocurrencies from January 2020 to May 2021 in Egypt and USA. On the process of investigating the impact of the COVID-19 on the financial markets the study assumes the COVID-19 cumulative cases, Death cases, and the Fatality ratio to be the independent variables, and the Stock returns for the two indices (EGX30 and S&P 500), and the Returns for the four major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Tether) to be the dependent variables of the study. The study findings revealed that there is a negative relationship between the COVID-19 cumulative cases, and daily S&P 500 stock returns, and there is a negative relationship between COVID-19 cumulative cases, fatality ratio, and daily EGX30 stock returns. There is a positive relationship between COVID-19 world death cases and daily Bitcoin prices, daily Ethereum prices, and daily Litecoin prices. There is a negative relationship between COVID-19 world death cases and daily Tether prices because tether is the only important stable coin on the crypto market with significant market capitalization.