A new Duke University survey shows corporate chief financial officers are feeling more optimistic about the economy, now that the election is over.
Using a 0-100 scale, the quarterly survey measures “CFO optimism” about the economy. That number jumped from 62.8 before the election to 68.8 following the November vote. Construction companies and manufacturers reported the largest increase.
Duke's Fuqua School of Business surveyed more than 500 corporate CFOs, in cooperation with Federal Reserve Banks in Atlanta and Richmond. Finance professor John Graham said one reason they're feeling better is because many companies expect the Trump administration to take a laxer approach to regulation.
"Companies are hoping for less regulation and less deterrence to acquisitions and things like that,” he said.
But Graham said some companies are nervous, especially ones that do business in Mexico and Canada because Trump has proposed tariffs on goods coming from those countries.
“Maybe not surprisingly, given all the rhetoric we've heard, concerns about tariffs jumped up,” Graham said. “A decent percentage of companies listed this as one of their top concerns, and among the firms that listed tariffs as a top concern, those companies, their optimism actually declined.”
Across the board, CFOs hope Trump will keep his promise to cut the corporate tax rate.
“Taxes are always important to companies. And so it's another policy let's say that they think is important, and they have their eye on very carefully now,” Graham said.
