Good morning. CFOs can’t control the economy but they increasingly believe they can control the outcome for their own companies.
That tension—what Deloitte calls a “paradox of promise versus pessimism”—is a defining theme in the firm’s North American Q2 2026 CFO Signals survey, Ed Hardy, U.S. financial services leader at Deloitte, told me.
About a third (33%) of respondents said the economy in North America is bad, compared to only 5% who felt this way in the first quarter. Meanwhile, 90% said they’re significantly or somewhat more optimistic about the future financial prospects of their company. The findings are based on a survey of 200 CFOs from across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, at companies with at least $1 billion in revenue.
“The macroeconomic outlook has dipped for two consecutive quarters,” Hardy said. “But at the same time, CFOs’ confidence in their own ability to execute strategy and navigate challenges is as strong as it’s been in several quarters.”
The divergence reflects a deeper shift in how finance chiefs are operating. “They’ve built the muscle,” Hardy said.
