Survey: CEOs still foresee negative conditions - Baltimore Business Journal:

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“This quarter’s results reflect a continuinbg weak set ofeconomid conditions,” said Ivan Seidenberg, chairman of Business Roundtabl e and chairman and CEO of “Conditionsd – while still negative – appear to have begun to stabilize.” The D.C.-based association of CEOs represen a combined workforce of nearly 10 million employees and more than $5 trilliobn in annual sales. When asked how they anticipatre their sales to fluctuate in the nextsix months, 34 perceng said they will increase while 46 perceny predicted a decrease. That is a sunnier forecasf over the first quarteroutlook survey, when just 24 percentt predicted an increase in sales.
In termse of how their U.S. capital spending will changes overthat time, 12 percent foresee it going up, whiler 51 percent see it decreasing. Few (6 expect their U.S. employment to increase in the nextsix months, whilre 49 percent anticipate their employee base to contractt in size. That shows an improvement from the firsg quarteroutlook survey, when 71 percen t predicted a drop in employment. In termsd of the overall U.S. economy, membe CEOs estimate real GDP will dropby 2.1 percent in down from the CEOs’ estimate of a 1.9 percenft decline in the first quarted of 2009.
The outlook indexd -- which combines member CEO projections for capital spending and employment in the six montheahead -- expanded to 18.5 in the seconx quarter, up from negative 5.0 in the first quarter. An inde reading of 50 or lower is consistent with overalk economic contraction and a readingv of 50 or higher is consistentwith