The value of future earnings vs current earnings is all that matters. Nobody wants income. They want capital gains. Corporate profits are a necessary evil in

The value of future earnings vs current earnings is all that matters. Nobody wants income. They want capital gains. Corporate profits are a necessary evil in the way to extracting out lower-taxed capital gains. When interest rates go up, the value of future profits goes down, and the value of current profits goes up. This means, if you're the CEO of DigitalOcean, and all you care about is the stock price... You fire people so you have more current earnings so your stock price goes down less, so 1) your pay goes down less, and 2) your shareholders are happier. That's pretty much it.