When Bezos was still at the helm of Amazon in the 2000s, the investors demanded a profit (and a dividend?). Not giving in, he kept reinvesting any earnings back in the business for years to come.
The current flavour of capitalism is more heavily tuned for profits over other parameters such as employee satisfaction and morale.
Still, seeing the same response across all companies in every industry is bizarre. This gives more credence to the big-three-index-funds-control-most-companies theory[1].
[1] Hidden power of the Big Three? Passive index funds, re-concentration of corporate ownership, and new financial risk https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-and-politic...