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What determines if stocks are going up and down instantly?

Since stocks are changing instantly all the time, does that literally mean that the companies computers all over the country are reporting sales? Like if everybody goes out and buys jeans at Abercrombie & Fitch at 11 AM this morning, the stock will shoot up? Can somebody explain it to me, what makes the stocks go up and down instantly?

Public Comments

1. No, if you buy a million dollars worth of jeans, it won't be reported to wall street until the next earnings report.
2. stocks don't have any connection to actual day-to-day operations. Stock prices are determined by supply and demand of stock buyers and sellers after researching financial information about the company they want to buy stocks in. If you're not familiar with business financial statements, accounting, etc, it's not the right arena for you to invest in - you can lose all your investment if you're not careful
3. supply and demand. for example, if 1000 people are trying to buy shares, meanwhile only 900 people are selling, the price will go up until 100 more people think it is high enough to sell. at that point the price would theoretically stabilize. Only thing is, the stock market is constantly playing this game of who wants to buy vs. sell at the current market price. Other things that affect the price are: 1. news 2 corporate actions (dividends, mergers, spinoffs, etc) 3 earnings 4. if that sector is doing good/bad 5. political events, disasters, catastrophies 6. market sentiment 7. macro economic reports 8. forward looking financial statements 9. actual vs. estimated performance there are too many factors to name. that is why even the brokers that have been doing this for decades still lose money here and there.
4. what causes stocks to go up is if more people want to buy a stock then more people wanting to sell it. And for a stock to go down, it's more people wanting to sell it then people wanting to buy it. Other things that affect stocks are company reports on how well or poorly it's doing for the quarter, other company's in the same field as the company, stock analysts recommendations, computer trading programs, etc.
5. are you doing your homework or what?