North American CFOs are, for now, still riding high on the wider economy and their own organizations’ prospects, though their confidence in both appears to be dipping.
That’s according to the first-quarter CFO Signals survey released by Deloitte on Tuesday. By Deloitte’s tabulations, CFOs’ confidence in current economic and business conditions, measured on a scale from one through 10, came in at 6.3 in the first quarter of this year. That’s down from 6.6 in the fourth quarter of 2025, though Deloitte researchers noted it was also the third-highest score since the first quarter of 2022.
Deloitte arrives at the figure by asking CFO respondents their thoughts on a series of questions about the business environment now and in the future. The Big Four firm also weaves in calculations on equity markets, equity-financing conditions and debt-financing conditions. This quarter’s 6.3 ranking is considered to be in the “high” category, according to Deloitte.
The latest CFO Signals survey, which was conducted between March 2 and March 16, queried 200 North American CFOs working at companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenue. The relatively high level of confidence detected by Deloitte appears to jibe with the results of another recent CFO survey conducted by Duke University and the Federal Reserve Banks of Richmond and Atlanta.
As for CFOs’ sentiments on their own companies’ prospects, Deloitte’s survey revealed that 74% of respondents said they are either “significantly” or “somewhat” more optimistic. That marks a decline from 90% a half year ago, according to Deloitte.
Meanwhile, Deloitte’s survey also showed a “heightened focus on cost management,” the authors of the latest report wrote in a research summary issued Tuesday. To wit, 52% of respondents said that cost management was their biggest internal concern, while the same share cited supply chain disruption as the biggest external concern.
“It’s too soon to know how geopolitical conflicts may play out,” report authors wrote, likely in reference to the onset of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, which has already killed thousands of civilians overseas and scrambled the movement and pricing of oil since it began Feb. 28. “But changes in input costs or interruptions in supply chains can put pressure on finance chiefs to tamp down spending.”
Deloitte’s survey also pointed to a “balancing act” CFOs are being asked to perform: “When asked to select up to three factors driving their organization’s efforts to manage costs, 49% of respondents cite pressure to invest in new technologies, such as cloud or artificial intelligence,” the report stated. “But at the same time, 48% also cite shrinking profit margins as a key reason they’re prioritizing cost management now.”
And, when respondents were asked to share “how current cost management considerations are changing their organization’s allocation of capital,” slightly over half (52%) said they’re “redirecting operating expense investments,” while 46% said they’re doing the same for capital expenditure investments.
At the same time, 41% of respondents said they’re reducing capital spending, and 39% said they’re reducing operating spending.
