Hundreds of Earnings Calls Show Companies More Scared Than 2008

  • Fed study finds more firms are cutting investments and payouts
  • 2008 example suggests funding fears won’t normalize for a year

  

Photographer: Audun Bakke Andersen/Moment via Getty Images

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The once-in-a-century pandemic has unleashed financing fears all over Corporate America that far exceed the 2008 crisis, as executives prep for fresh economic and market pain.

A new study by Federal Reserve researchers used a machine-reading program to sift through more than 600 earnings calls last month in order to map out the virus-induced fallout.