Equity markets will ebb and flow (mostly flow it seems) at the whim of central planners; and employment statistics will me X-12'd into whatever cognitive bias is required for the status quo to be maintained; but one thing that is hard to hide (harder still with Bloomberg's help) is the reality of job cut announcements. Over the past few years, there is one pronounced reality that has occurred in front of any major fiscal or monetary stimulus-related event - a huge rise in North American job cuts. It would appear, given the data below, that CEOs are wise in the ways of just-in-time only fix it when its totally broken policy-making and have front-run every major event with huge layoffs. To wit, since the start of September, announced layoffs in North American firms have soared to levels not seen since the debt-ceiling-debacle of last year (all the while - claims and the unemployment rate continue to fall). Cautiously optimistic? not!
CEOs simply do not, in reality, strategize on hope - its simple, lay off first, hope second!
Evidently - North American CEOs are not hopeful!
Charts: <LOSS> via Bloomberg