Interest rates are the single most powerful factor affecting the stock market. As sure as the moon causes ocean tides to rise and fall, interest rates cause stock prices to do the same.
Stock prices go up when interest rates go down, and fall when interest rates go up.
There is another powerful force, however, that comes along every four years that overrules interest rates. It's The Presidential Cycle. It doesn't matter whether interest rates are rising or falling, the stock market goes up during the last two years of a presidential administration. This phenomenon is neither coincidence nor accident. It is the result of political forces striving to boost the economy.