COVID-19 has resulted in high volatility in financial markets across the world. The goal of this study is to investigate the impact of COVID-19-related news on the stock markets in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The study utilizes machine learning approaches to assess the role of COVID-19 news in stock return predictability in these markets. The results reveal that the stock markets in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman were impacted by coronavirus-related news; however, this news had no impact on the stocks in Bahrain. Moreover, the results indicate that the impacted markets were influenced differently in terms of the quantities and types of news.