Global production linkages play a significant role in how U.S. monetary policy affects stock returns worldwide. By analyzing a new dataset, researchers found that around 70% of the impact of U.S. monetary policy shocks on country-sector stock returns is due to these global production connections. Shutting down these linkages would cut the global impact of U.S. monetary policy shocks in half. This shows how interconnected the world economy is and how actions in one country can have far-reaching effects on stock markets across the globe.