On December 4, 2024 The CFO Survey was released. It contains a variety of statistics regarding how CFOs view business and economic conditions.
In the CFO Survey press release, I found the following to be the most notable excerpts – although I don’t necessarily agree with them:
CFOs also reported their outlook for the broader economy. CFO optimism about the overall economy jumped from 62.8 before the election to 68.8 following the election. By sector, companies in manufacturing and construction experienced the largest increases following the election. Expected growth in real GDP for 2025 increased from 1.9 last quarter to 2.16 in the pre-election survey and to 2.33 after the election.
“This jump in optimism reflects the resolution of uncertainty about the presidential election, combined with a sense that the tax and regulatory policies of the new administration will broadly benefit the corporate sector,” said John Graham, a Duke Fuqua School of Business finance professor and the academic director of the survey. “A similar surge in business optimism occurred the first time President Trump was elected in 2016.”
The CFO Survey contains an Optimism Index chart, with the blue line showing U.S. Optimism (with regard to the economy) at 65.9, as seen below:
—
It should be interesting to see how well the CFOs predict business and economic conditions going forward. I discussed past various aspects of this, and the importance of these predictions, in the July 9, 2010 post titled “The Business Environment”.
(past posts on CEO and CFO surveys can be found under the “CFO and CEO Confidence” label)
_____
I post various economic forecasts because I believe they should be carefully monitored. However, as those familiar with this site are aware, I do not necessarily agree with many of the consensus estimates and much of the commentary in these forecast surveys.
_____
The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation
SPX at 6062.80 as this post is written
No comments:
Post a Comment