CFO Optimism About U.S. Economy Rises to Record After Tax Cuts

Chief financial officers in the U.S. are feeling better than ever in the wake of federal tax cuts enacted late last year.

A measure of CFOs’ sentiment about the U.S. economy rose 2.6 points to a reading of 71.2 in the first quarter, the highest level since the survey began in 1996, according to a quarterly report Wednesday from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and CFO Magazine. Two-thirds of executives said that corporate tax reform is helping their firms, with 36 percent describing the overall benefit as medium or large.