We present the first evidence that initial ratings of commercial paper influence common stock returns. Highly-rated industrial issues of commercial paper, unaccompanied by bank letters of credit, are associated with significantly positive abnormal returns; lower-rated issues are not. The stock price effects of changes in commercial paper ratings also demonstrate the relevance of ratings to the financing of firms. Rating downgrades, especially those that imply an exit from the commercial paper market, produce significantly negative abnormal returns; upgrades have no effects. Initial commercial paper ratings and subsequent reratings appear to help investors sort firms by their future prospects.

This article examines the role of measurement biases, due to order flow effects, in abnormal split ex-day returns. The authors conjecture that postsplit orders consist of numerous small buyers and fewer larger sellers. This change in order flow causes closing prices to occur more frequently at the ask price, consistent with M. T. Maloney and J. H. Mulherin (1992) and M. Grinblatt and D. Keim (1991). In addition, this change causes specialists' spreads to increase, perhaps to offset larger average inventories. The authors examine both NYSE and NASDAQ samples and find that order flow biases can explain approximately 80 percent (48 percent) of the NYSE (NASDAQ) ex-day return.

This study examines stock and bond price reactions to dividend changes. The positive stock market response to dividend increases has several potential explanations, two of the more commonly discussed being information content and wealth redistribution between stockholders and bondholders. The evidence presented supports the wealth redistribution hypothesis but does not rule out the information content hypothesis. Typically we find that the bond price reaction to announcements of large dividend changes is opposite to the stock price reaction. Our results differ from those of Handjinicolaou and Kalay.

ABSTRACT This study examines stock and bond price reactions to dividend changes. The positive stock market response to dividend increases has several potential explanations, two of the more commonly discussed being information content and wealth redistribution between stockholders and bondholders. The evidence presented supports the wealth redistribution hypothesis but does not rule out the information content hypothesis. Typically we find that the bond price reaction to announcements of large dividend changes is opposite to the stock price reaction. Our results differ from those of Handjinicolaou and Kalay.

ABSTRACT We present the first evidence that initial ratings of commercial paper influence common stock returns. Highly‐rated industrial issues of commercial paper, unaccompanied by bank letters of credit, are associated with significantly positive abnormal returns; lower‐rated issues are not. The stock price effects of changes in commercial paper ratings also demonstrate the relevance of ratings to the financing of firms. Rating downgrades, especially those that imply an exit from the commercial paper market, produce significantly negative abnormal returns; upgrades have no effects. Initial commercial paper ratings and subsequent reratings appear to help investors sort firms by their future prospects.

ABSTRACT This article examines the role of measurement biases, due to order flow effects, in abnormal split ex‐day returns. We conjecture that postsplit orders consist of numerous small buyers and fewer larger sellers. This change in order flow causes closing prices to occur more frequently at the ask price, consistent with Maloney and Mulherin (1992) and Grinblatt and Keim (1991) . In addition, this change causes specialists' spreads to increase, perhaps to offset larger average inventories. We examine both NYSE and NASDAQ samples and find that order flow biases can explain approximately 80 percent (48 percent) of the NYSE (NASDAQ) ex‐day return.

This study examines stock and bond price reactions to dividend changes. The positive stock market response to dividend increases has several potential explanations, two of the more commonly discussed being information content and wealth redistribution between stockholders and bondholders. The evidence presented supports the wealth redistribution hypothesis but does not rule out the information content hypothesis. Typically, the authors find that the bond price reaction to announcements of large dividend changes is opposite to the stock price reaction. Their results differ from those of G. Handjinicolaou and A. Kalay (1984).

The authors present the first evidence that initial ratings of commercial paper influence common stock returns. Highly rated industrial issues of commercial paper, unaccompanied by bank letters of credit, are associated with significantly positive abnormal returns; lower-rated issues are not. The stock price effects of changes in commercial paper ratings also demonstrate the relevance of ratings to the financing of firms. Rating downgrades, especially those that imply an exit from the commercial paper market, produce significantly negative abnormal returns; upgrades have no effects. Initial commercial paper ratings and subsequent reratings appear to help investors sort firms by their future prospects.