Overview
- The Conference Board’s Measure of CEO Confidence fell to 47 in Q2, a 12‑point drop from Q1 that signals more executives see conditions worsening, according to a survey reported Thursday.
- The survey polled 141 Fortune Global 500 chief executives between May 4 and May 18 and found 47% said conditions were worse compared with six months earlier while only 15% said they were better.
- Reporters and executives link the shift to the Iran war’s disruption of oil routes such as the Strait of Hormuz, which has pushed up fuel costs and raised input‑price and logistics pressures across industries.
- Companies are responding unevenly: roughly 45% of surveyed firms plan price increases of about 4%–7% to protect margins, hiring looks cautious and broad capital‑spending cuts have not yet appeared in the Conference Board results.
- A related risk is Iran’s growing use of crypto to skirt sanctions—its digital‑asset ecosystem is estimated at about $7.78 billion—which could complicate payments, sanctions enforcement and market flows if the conflict continues.