Understanding interconnections among steel, coal, iron ore, and financial assets in the US and China using an advanced methodology

The chief purpose of this research is to test nexuses among steel, coal, iron ore, and financial assets in the US and China. To do this, we employ Diebold and Yilmaz's (2012) framework based on quantile VAR and a combination of the GJR-GARCH model with Diebold and Yilmaz (2012), providing an opportunity to remedy econometric defects in previous studies. The outcomes demonstrate that lower and upper quantiles properly perform in comparison with the conditional mean, signifying that gauging connectedness the average mean is not capable of producing corroborative evidence. Other results confirm there are bidirectional links between steel and the S&P500, and the USD effects on iron ore and coal are not significant. Moreover, iron ore is the second contributor of shocks to the steel market, whereas coal does not significantly affect the steel market. Regarding Chinese financial assets, Shanghai stock receives the highest shocks from steel, and noticeably, the second significant contributor to steel volatility shocks is Shanghai stock. Plus, the USD/CNY gives shocks to steel. From a practical point of view, our findings will be helpful in developing market participants' consciousness regarding price volatility shocks of bulk commodities and financial assets. •The connectedness is examined among steel, coal, iron ore, and financial assets in the US and China.•The quantile connectedness approaches proposed by Ando et al. (2022) and Chatziantoniou et al. (2021) are used.•The bidirectional links between steel and the S&P500 and noticeable effects of the US dollar on iron ore and coal at lower quantiles were found.•In the upper quantile, the USD/CNY is a stronger contributor.•Coal does not make notable contributions to the steel market in the lower and upper quantiles.