Media Attention, Macroeconomic Fundamentals, and the Stock Market

We construct indices of media attention to macroeconomic risks including employment, growth, inflation, monetary policy, and oil prices. Attention rises around macroeconomic announcements and following changes in fundamentals over quarterly, annual, and business cycle horizons. The effect is asymmetric, with bad news raising attention more than good news. Attention relates to the stock market in two ways. First, increases in aggregate trade volume and volatility coincide with rising attention, controlling for announcements. Second, changes in attention prior to the unemployment announcement predict both the announcement surprise and stock returns on the announcement day. We conclude that media attention to macroeconomic fundamentals provides useful information beyond the dates and contents of macroeconomic announcements.