Macroeconomics factors affecting the Malaysia and the United States of America stock market indices / Muhammad Zaid Ismail

The stock market is the place for investors and other parties to seek funds for their business. The stock market also serves as a barometer of a country's market index's performance and reflects investors' perceptions of the economy's health. The main objectives of the study is to fill the gap of knowledge by finding out how the stock market indices of Malaysia and the United States were affected/influenced by the macroeconomic variables named gross domestic products (GDP), inflation rate (CPI), unemployment rate (UR), and exchange rate (EXC) for the independent variables. The study was conducted for thirty-nine (39) years from 1982 to 2020, and the data used for this study is secondary data. As for the countries involved in this study, Malaysia and the United States of America are selected. The data for these countries are collected from the World Bank Open Data website. The study applied panel data to frame a model to measure the observation from the same subject each time. Based on the findings, the study found that independent variables, the gross domestic product, and exchange rate, have a significant positive impact on the stock market indices. In contrast, the unemployment rate significantly impacts the stock market indices, and meanwhile, the inflation rate shows an insignificant impact on the stock market.