  This paper investigates the relationship between the spread of the COVID-19
pandemic, the state of community activity, and the financial index performance
across 20 countries. First, we analyze which countries behaved similarly in
2020 with respect to one of three multivariate time series: daily COVID-19
cases, Apple mobility data and national equity index price. Next, we study the
trajectories of all three of these attributes in conjunction to determine which
exhibited greater similarity. Finally, we investigate whether country financial
indices or mobility data responded quicker to surges in COVID-19 cases. Our
results indicate that mobility data and national financial indices exhibited
the most similarity in their trajectories, with financial indices responding
quicker. This suggests that financial market participants may have interpreted
and responded to COVID-19 data more efficiently than governments. Further,
results imply that efforts to study community mobility data as a leading
indicator for financial market performance during the pandemic were misguided.
