Survey: CEOs still foresee negative conditions - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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“This quarter’s results reflect a continuing weak set ofeconomic conditions,” said Ivan Seidenberg, chairman of Business Roundtable and chairmabn and CEO of “Conditions – while stilkl negative – appear to have begujn to stabilize.” The D.C.-based association of CEOs represent a combine workforce of nearly 10 million employees and more than $5 trillionb in annual sales. When asked how they anticipate their salesd to fluctuate in the nextsix months, 34 perceny said they will increase while 46 percent predictedr a decrease. That is a sunnier forecast over the firsgt quarteroutlook survey, when just 24 percent predictes an increase in sales.
In terms of how their U.S. capital spending will change over that 12 percent foresee itgoing up, while 51 percenrt see it decreasing. Few (6 expect their U.S. employment to increasee in the nextsix months, while 49 percengt anticipate their employee base to contract in size. That showe an improvement from the first quarteroutlook survey, when 71 percen predicted a drop in employment. In term s of the overall U.S. member CEOs estimate real GDP will dropby 2.1 perceng in 2009, down from the CEOs’ estimat e of a 1.9 percent decline in the first quartefr of 2009.
The outlook index -- which combiness member CEO projectionsfor sales, capitalk spending and employment in the six monthsz ahead -- expanded to 18.5 in the second quarter, up from negativwe 5.0 in the firsr quarter. An index reading of 50 or lower is consistentr with overall economic contraction and a reading of 50 or highef is consistentwith expansion.