Macroeconomic Announcements and the News That Matters Most to Investors

Studying a large set of macroeconomic announcements (MAs) and disentangling their news content, we show that a portfolio of stocks that pays off around MAs that negatively impact the aggregate stock market commands a positive risk premium. Adding this portfolio to a position in the aggregate market substantially increases Sharpe ratio while reducing MA risk exposure, which implies a rejection of the CAPM. Using state-of-the-art measures of cash flow and discount rate news and consistent with pro