LAUSR

We examine the cross-sectional seasonality of stock excess returns in China. We find that stocks’ historical excess returns are positively related to their future excess returns under a congruent-mood period and negatively associated with their future excess returns under a noncongruent-mood period. Besides, stocks with larger mood beta tend to outperform during mood periods, and this impact is still significant after differentiating companies. Moreover, consistent with our hypotheses, mood beta has stronger explanatory power after China’s unique Split-Share Structure Reform and RMB Exchange Rate Reform. Finally, mood beta has stronger explanatory power compared to sentiment beta during ascending and descending mood months.