It is not necessarily the case that interest rates, credit spreads,
and dividend yields move in a consistent direction during the
recession phase of a business cycle. I therefore introduce a dummy
variable that explicitly accounts for whether the economy is in
recession during the period concerned. This confirms the intuitive
notion that news is more negative during recession, Speculators
significantly increase their net position size during recession which
suggests that factors in addition to credit (perhaps the safe haven
nature of gold) are at play during this period. Hedgers also increase
the magnitude of their net position, this is perhaps a result of risk
aversion increasing during recession and thus producers seek to
hedge a greater proportion of output by taking larger short
positions.