Risk Premia in the 8:30 Economy

Financial asset risk premia are widely agreed to vary over time. This paper decomposes these risk premia into expected excess returns earned in short windows around the times of macroeconomic news announcements (which mostly come out at 8:30[Formula: see text]am) and the expected excess returns that are earned at other times. Using intradaily data, we find that some, but not all, of the time-varying expected excess returns accrue right around macroeconomic announcements. In forecasting six-month cumulative bond returns, there is more predictability in announcement windows than at other times.