Oil Prices, Fossil-Fuel Stocks and Alternative Energy Stocks

As new alternative energy industries are created and old ones are revised, markets constantly try to interpret and adjust to those changes. The purpose of this study is to shed some light on the inner dynamics of the select outside price-shocks versus sector-specific energy companies. This study analyzes the inner dynamics (both short and long-term) of sub-sector energy company portfolios such as petroleum, coal, natural gas, solar, nuclear, wind, and biofuel with respect to each other as well as other asset markets commonly used in literature. In light of outside shocks, we find that some alternative energy companies behave like fossil-fuel companies, while others don’t. Interestingly petroleum companies give no significant short-term response to oil-price or exchange-rate shocks. Also, there is a significant relationship between gold price shocks and most energy sub-sectors in the long-run. The same relationship was not observed in the short-run.