The Impact of COVID-19 on the Volatility of Copper Futures

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced significant uncertainty across various economic sectors, most notably in the industrial sector due to the high volatility in copper futures markets. These markets play a crucial role in the construction, electrical networks, electronic products, and industrial machinery industries. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volatility of copper futures returns from 2 January 2018 to 30 December 2022 using an extended ARMA(m,n)–GARCH(p,q) framework. According to the results, the occurrence of the pandemic nearly doubled the long-run equilibrium volatility of returns compared to the values obtained in the pre-pandemic period. Hence, we conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant influence on the volatility in the copper futures market.