• After two years of layoffs, bloodletting at the company may be over.
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Twenty-five senior employees were fired in the latest round of bloodletting.
Wall Street prepared itself for a week of bloodletting as stock market conditions continued to worsen.
A period marked by severe investing losses. Bloodletting may occur during a bear market, in which the value of securities in many sectors may decline rapidly and heavily.
It is named after an ancient medical practice in which doctors would use leaches or cuts to drain some of a patient's blood (one of the four humors). The premise being that it was "healthy" to balance the humors if feeling ill.
Investors facing a bear market have the option of riding out the downturn and holding onto their investments, or selling their investments in order to mitigate losses. A sell off of a particular security may result in a further decline in its value, as there are more sellers than buyers available in the market. An investor who thinks that the market will improve, may take advantage of this situation by buying up bargain stocks.
1. мед. кровопускание; вскрытие вены
2. = bloodshed
• Formerly used as a treatment to reduce excess blood (one of the four humors of medieval medicine)
• Indiscriminate slaughter