Did Precious Metals Serve as Hedge and Safe-haven Alternatives to Equity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: New Insights Using a Copula-based Approach

We examine the hedging and safe-haven characteristics of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium and three major indices in the US market. The metal markets are known for their hedging characteristics during financial distress. This article sheds new insights using high-frequency data into precious metals' hedging and safe-haven abilities under extreme market volatility conditions attributed to the COVID-19 crisis using the copula method. The results show that gold outperforms all other precious metals in hedging and as a safe haven under extreme stock market conditions, in both the pre-crisis and crisis periods, with silver as the next best alternative.JEL codes: G01, G11, G15, G19