Sunday, October 07, 2012

Weak CEO Confidence, Weaker Market Ahead?

Last week The Conference Board released its CEO Confidence Measure and noted a decline to 42 in the third quarter versus 47 in Q2. A reading below 50 reflects more negative responses than positive ones. The report notes a third of the CEO's surveyed indicated they were curtailing capital spending plans. Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board noted,
"This latest report reflects ongoing concern about the strength of the economy. CEOs’ assessment of current conditions remains weak and they have grown increasingly pessimistic about the short-term outlook. Sluggish growth and a persistent cloud of uncertainty have played a role in CEOs curtailing spending plans this year.”
Historically, when this Measure reached this level of pessimism, the equity market was not too far from a near term peak.

From The Blog of HORAN Capital Advisors


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