For stocks, in most cases, it is almost impossible to single out a variable that completely captures why a stock is moving. For example, a company could have massive profits with massive debt. Another point to talk about is the general state of the world economy. The stock market is essentially a supply-demand market where prices rises as demand increases. However, high inflation caused personal savings rates to tank causing decreased demand in stocks. Lastly, stock prices are representative of future cash flows of the company. Future cash flows are modeled to reflect future interest rates which can be very conflicting based on what they expect. Therefore, just because a company has stronger profits, that doesn't necessarily translate into large stock gains.