Abstract: While there is a strong presumption in the financial press that oil prices drive the stock
market, the empirical evidence on the impact of oil price shocks on stock prices has been mixed.
This paper shows that the response of aggregate U.S. real stock returns may differ greatly
depending on whether the increase in the price of crude oil is driven by demand or supply shocks
in the crude oil market. The conventional wisdom that higher oil prices necessarily cause lower
stock prices is shown to apply only to oil-market specific demand shocks such as increases in the
precautionary demand for crude oil that reflect concerns about future oil supply shortfalls. In
contrast, positive shocks to the global demand for industrial commodities cause both higher real
oil prices and higher stock prices, which helps explain the resilience of the U.S. stock market to
the recent surge in the price of oil. Oil supply shocks have no significant effects on returns. Oil
demand and oil supply shocks combined account for 22% of the long-run variation in U.S. real
stock returns. The responses of industry-specific U.S. stock returns to demand and supply shocks
in the crude oil market are consistent with accounts of the transmission of oil price shocks that
emphasize the reduction in domestic final demand.