Normally layoffs are viewed as positive or neutral event, but this paragraph -- " In Q4, preliminary, unaudited results indicate that we again made a GAAP profit, but less than Q3. This quarter, as with Q3, shipment of higher priced Model 3 variants (this time to Europe and Asia) will hopefully allow us, with great difficulty, effort and some luck, to target a tiny profit" does not instill much confidence, I guess.
Layoffs are viewed as positive for companies with a declining business (or at least on the bad part of the cycle). But when the company is growing and the stock is close to the all time high they are not so understandable.
It is not much of a problem if Q4 is better than Q4 of the previous year. That is actually a more meaningful comparison than Q3 to Q4, each quarter will be affected by different issues (end of financial year, college opening, winter, summer etc) whereas across years, the influences on each quarter are similar.
Normally layoffs are viewed as positive or neutral event, but this paragraph -- " In Q4, preliminary, unaudited results indicate that we again made a GAAP profit, but less than Q3. This quarter, as with Q3, shipment of higher priced Model 3 variants (this time to Europe and Asia) will hopefully allow us, with great difficulty, effort and some luck, to target a tiny profit" does not instill much confidence, I guess.