Hurricane Sandy Impact on the Financial Market

Stocks Analysis using SAS

Using SAS, a nonparametric test was conducted based off of 17 out of 22 top traded companies in New Jersey in 2013 (Fortune, 2014). These companies are:

NYSE:JNJ
Johnson & Johnson
NYSE: HON
Honeywell International Inc.
NYSE: NRG
NRG Energy, Inc.
NYSE: MRK
Merck & Co., Inc.
NYSE: CPB
Campbell Soup Company
NYSE: PRU
Prudential Financial Inc.
NYSE: CB
Chubb Corporation
NYSE: DGX
Quest Diagnostics Inc.
NYSE: SEE
Sealed Air Corp.
NYSE: HTZ
Hertz Global Holdings Inc.
NYSE: PEG
Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.
NYSE: BDX
Becton, Dickinson and Co.
NASDAQ: CAR
Avis Budget Group Inc.
NASDAQ: BBBY
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
NASDAQ: ADP
Automatic Data Processing Inc.
NASDAQ: CELG
Celgene Corp.
NASDAQ: CTSH
Cognizant Technology Solns Corp.

While analysis of variance tests depends on the assumption that all populations under comparison are normally distributed, the Kruskal-Wallis test has no such restriction on the comparison. The Kruskal-Wallis test is ideal to compare the different time frames of the hurricane to determine if the stock prices have similar distribution functions.