“Depressed investor sentiment” applies to publicly traded companies as well. Profitability is now the focus. Speculative bets are not.
Public markets operate on opinions and feelings more than science. That sentiment of the markets is not high right now is clear. Look at every publicly traded tech company’s performance in the last 12 months.
This level of pedantry is not conducive to healthy conversation. It’s quite clear from my post what I meant: that there are not necessarily rules to how markets react. Instead, events occur, individuals form opinions on what those events mean for the future of their assets, and make bets against those predictions. This means that fears of further increasing rates driving reduced consumer purchasing can cause a suppression in prices. In fact, even the fear that others might have that fear, whether or not you believe it yourself, can drive action. The GME squeeze was a great example of this.
I believe you also understood precisely what I meant, and are trying to form a gotcha.
In any case, I’ve lost the plot on your point here. That interest rates impact spending and corporate decisions is verifiable fact, using the ever-elusive scientific method which you’ve so helpfully educated me about. If you truly believe in this method, I’d suggest you exercise it and watch how interest rate changes shift economies and markets every time they happen in history. It just so happens to be precisely the exact reason why the Fed moves them in the first place. It was widely discussed when rates began rising that the impact would likely be an increase in unemployment. The Fed specifically addressed this point, and stated that while it was not an explicit goal to increase it in this case, it may happen.
There are always rules by which a system abides even if they're too complex to understand. You're just writing it off as "feelings and opinions" because having magic fairy dust makes you feel better about the state of economics as an analytical field
Public markets operate on opinions and feelings more than science. That sentiment of the markets is not high right now is clear. Look at every publicly traded tech company’s performance in the last 12 months.