Just ahead of market fluctuations amid another U.S. government shutdown, CFOs were apparently feeling pretty good about their own companies’ prospects.
That’s according to the latest CFO Signals survey conducted by Deloitte between Sept. 3 and Sept. 17. The quarterly survey calculates North American finance chiefs’ sentiments on the economy through a series of questions about current and future business conditions. In the third-quarter edition, Deloitte researchers tabulated an overall “CFO confidence score” of 5.7 out of 10, which they described as “solidly in medium territory.”
That figure was up from 5.4 in the prior quarter, but it didn’t mark a “major shift” in CFO confidence, said Senior Manager of Deloitte’s CFO Program John Goff in a Tuesday interview. What’s notable in the latest survey, he said, was finance chiefs’ confidence in their own organizations’ prospects.
When asked about financial prospects for their companies compared to the last three months, a whopping 90% of respondents said they felt “more optimistic.” In the second-quarter survey, the share of respondents who felt the same was 48%.
Why the disconnect in sentiments on the economy at large and CFOs’ own businesses? Goff suggested the Federal Reserve’s Sept. 17 decision to cut interest rates likely played a big role. Though the survey was conducted mostly before the rate cut was officially announced, the central bank’s decision was all but certain for many days beforehand.
The prospect for future rate cuts, of course, remains an open question. As government data grinds to a halt amid the federal shutdown, Federal Reserve leaders are essentially “flying blind” on making such decisions, one economics professor told ABC News Wednesday. At the same time, surveys like Deloitte’s may start to carry more weight for business leaders and policymakers amid any future pauses in government economic data.
For now, Goff noted the S&P 500’s continued rise may also be influencing CFO’s confidence in their own business prospects. “That may instill a sense of general confidence,” he said. “The S&P is what investors think about what’s coming up.”
Still, despite optimism about their own businesses, CFOs are largely playing it safe. According to Deloitte’s survey, only 36% of respondents believe that now is a “good time to take greater risks,” largely in line with risk appetites in the prior quarter. That’s down significantly from the fourth quarter of 2024, when 67% of respondents said they were ready to take on greater risks.
The results of Deloitte’s latest CFO survey track with those in a similar recent survey conducted by Duke University and the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta. That survey also found a modest uptick in CFO optimism about the economy at large.
And, like Deloitte’s findings, the Duke-Fed survey also showed finance chiefs expressing a higher level of optimism in their own businesses. A Duke finance professor last week told CFO.com that finance chiefs are “breathing a little easier” amid resolution around some tariff uncertainty.
Deloitte’s CFO Signals survey queried 200 finance chiefs in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Respondents worked at companies with revenue of at least $1 billion.
