Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the intermittent behavior of the global spot markets of staple food crops

Intermittent or multifractal behavior has been reported in various markets, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been investigated. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global spot markets for staple foods has not yet been studied. We fill this gap by investigating the grain and oilseeds index (GOI) and its five sub-indices, wheat, maize, soybean, rice, and barley, released by the International Grains Council (IGC). We perform statistical tests on the presence of intrinsic multifractal behavior in subsamples before and during the COVID-19 pandemic using five multifractal analysis approaches. The results show that intrinsic multifractality is less likely in the (sub-)samples of rice and soybean, whereas the (sub-)samples of wheat and maize are more likely to possess multifractal nature. Only some (sub-)samples showed that the subsamples during COVID-19 were more intermittent than the subsamples before COVID-19.