CEOs starkly pessimistic but expect improvement in next six months

In late March, amid fallout from COVID-19, confidence among US CEOs declined to levels not seen since the height of the Great Recession, driven by pessimism about the current economy. Despite negativity about the present situation, CEOs were less pessimistic about the outlook for the next six months when surveyed in early April. This suggests that while CEOs see brighter days ahead, they also expect to experience major consequences from the current crisis. Workers, profits, sales, and investment activity will all take a hit, and those impacts could endure post-crisis.