Was the speaker who was being negative Seville? My guess would be that since his replacement is breathing down his neck, and we can only guess at why he resigned, maybe his whole outlook on life and everything has turned slightly negative. I have listened to previous audio conferences and found his tone a bit flatline overall, it's his style.
I think the negative announcement and subsequent selloff was exactly what the shorters were looking for - a nice fat Xmas present. They're all in today and will push this down as hard as they can.