Market Shock Tracker: An Analysis of Short-Term Market Reactions to Major Economic, Political, and Corporate Events (2020–2026)

Abstract

This paper analyzes short-term market reactions to 14 major economic, political, and corporate shock events from 2020 to 2026 using a multi-asset event study framework. Tracking SPY, QQQ, VIX, XLE, XLF, and XLK across 1-day, 3-day, 5-day, and 7-day windows, the study finds that VIX reacted more sharply than equity indexes in 11 of 14 events, sector ETFs revealed significant hidden rotation obscured by broad index movements, and several events produced counterintuitive outcomes consistent with pre-pricing effects. A proprietary classification framework — Transmission Type × Market Regime — is introduced to categorize how shocks propagate through financial systems. The full dataset and interactive platform are publicly available at marketshocktracker.netlify.app.