Become more informed in minutes...

Chief financial officers are increasingly optimistic about their own companies while becoming more cautious about U.S. equity valuations and broader economic risks, according to Deloitte’s third-quarter 2026 CFO Signals survey of 200 North American finance chiefs at companies with at least $1bn in revenue. The CFO Confidence Score rose to 6.1 from 5.9, with 90% reporting greater optimism about their companies’ financial prospects. However, 83% said U.S. equity markets are overvalued, up sharply from 49% in the second quarter, while the share saying it is a good time to take greater risks fell to 53% from 59%. Technology deployment, including generative AI, remains a significant internal concern, while cybersecurity ranked as the leading external risk. CFOs are also expected to focus increasingly on AI governance, costs, and measurable returns as adoption expands.

 

Fortune

Shorten Your Month-End Close

Ask a controller why the close takes ten days and you'll hear a list of things that can only happen after the period ends, when in reality, most of them could have happened earlier.

Join Hugh O'Neill, Principal Accountant in Residence and Jaysen Dyal, Sr. Product Marketing Manager from FloQast at our free CPE webinar on October 13th to see how they can help you to learn how to identify good automation candidates that ease the workload, and what steps to take to get there.

Every accounting team can close faster; the hard part is knowing where to look.

Free CPE Webinar

 

IPO postponements and withdrawals have accelerated in the third quarter of 2026, as Oura becomes the latest company to delay its offering amid uncertainty in market conditions. Seven IPOs have been postponed or withdrawn during the quarter, up from four in the second quarter and three in the first, as rising bond yields, renewed rate hikes, concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) spending, and greater access to private capital weigh on activity. Oura has also faced company-specific concerns about its reliance on a narrow consumer product line. Despite the recent slowdown, 2026 has remained a solid year for IPOs, generating approximately $146.9bn from 110 deals excluding SPACs, although deal volumes are down 30% from the same point last year. Total proceeds are up 394%, largely because of major offerings from SpaceX, SK Hynix, and Cerebras, while 59% of this year's IPOs are trading at or above their offer prices. Healthcare and industrials have each accounted for 24% of IPOs so far, followed by technology at 18%. 

 

Bloomberg

CNBC

Reuters

Paramount chief executive David Ellison has selected HBO content chief Casey Bloys to oversee streaming operations following the company’s planned $81bn acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to people familiar with the matter. The decision marks Ellison’s first major executive move ahead of the combination and will result in Paramount streaming chief Cindy Holland leaving the company. Ellison reportedly prioritized retaining Bloys to provide stability at HBO, which is expected to play a central role in the combined company’s streaming strategy. Bloys joined HBO in 2004 and has led programming since 2016, overseeing shows including “Succession,” “Veep,” and “The White Lotus.” Holland, a former Netflix executive who took charge of Paramount’s streaming platforms about a year ago, has departed as Paramount awaits court approval of a settlement related to its planned Warner acquisition.

 

The Hollywood Reporter

Los Angeles Times

New York Times

Wall Street Journal

President Trump has called for “tremendous self-regulation” of artificial intelligence at a White House summit with tech leaders including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, XAI’s Elon Musk and Google’s Sundar Pichai, who agreed to a “morally binding” set of principles for the technology. “We automatically have regulation with the Department of Justice, the FBI, all of that. But the self-regulation is very important,” Trump said.  Six of the CEOs signed a one-page document titled the “White House Accord on Super Intelligence: Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities.” Trump told reporters: “It’s almost like a constitution in a way,” adding: “The biggest people in the world signed that, and I signed it as president, and it really is a form of protection . . . I think it’s morally binding.” Meta's Zuckerberg described the document as “a set of principles and commitments around building robust internal controls and detecting if there are any issues with the technology, coupled with multiple layers of auditing and controls, starting with internal risk review, external auditors and evaluators.”

 

New York Post

NBC News

Forbes

U.S. job openings declined to a five-month low in August, the Labor Department reported on Tuesday, indicating that employers are becoming more cautious about expanding their workforces even as layoffs remain limited. Available positions fell to 7.1m from 7.3m in July, with vacancies declining across professional and business services, healthcare and social assistance, state and local government, manufacturing, and construction. Layoffs, however, dropped to their lowest level since March 2025, while hiring edged higher, and the quits rate remained at 1.9%, matching its lowest level since 2020. The figures reinforce signs of a “low-hire, low-fire” labor market in which employers are reluctant to either add or cut workers, limiting opportunities for job seekers and employees looking to move. There was approximately one vacancy for every unemployed worker in August, compared with two openings per unemployed worker at the labor market’s 2022 peak.

 

Bloomberg

CNBC

Reuters

US News and World Report

U.S. consumer confidence fell sharply in September to its lowest level since 2014 as concerns about the economy, labor market, inflation, and rising energy costs intensified. The Conference Board’s confidence index declined 6.7 points to 81.9, while its measure of current conditions fell nearly eight points to the lowest level since 2021, and expectations for the next six months reached a more than one-year low. Consumers also reported weaker plans to purchase homes, vehicles, and major appliances, while expectations for inflation and interest rates increased. Labor market sentiment deteriorated, with fewer respondents saying jobs were plentiful and more saying they were difficult to find. Income expectations also weakened, although consumer spending and the labor market have remained resilient despite elevated inflation.

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

The United States has imposed a ban on nearly $1bn-worth of Canadian imports, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products, and motorcycles, escalating an ongoing trade dispute between the two countries. The measure follows U.S. tariffs of 50% on about $20bn of Canadian goods and Canada's subsequent retaliatory tariffs. The ban covers an estimated $967m of imports based on 2025 figures, with alcoholic beverages accounting for 87% of the total. Certain dairy products and motorcycles, including some models produced by Quebec-based Bombardier Recreational Products, are also affected. Trade experts expect the immediate economic impact to be modest because many of the products were already subject to steep tariffs. The dispute has added uncertainty to the future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has responded to trade tensions by seeking to reduce Canada's reliance on the U.S. market and expand trade relationships with Europe, India, and China, while President Donald Trump has indicated that he expects Canada to seek an agreement.

 

ABC News

AP News

CBC News

Los Angeles Times

A report from consulting firm McKinsey & Co. suggests that around 11m workers in the U.S. may need to change jobs by 2035 because of AI-related displacement, and six of every seven workers will face substantial retraining and loss of income. The firm's research found that the full-time workers most likely to have to switch jobs are concentrated in three groups: office and administrative support, retail and sales, and transportation and logistics. Workers are not “interchangeable units,” the report’s authors observe. “Job opportunities can be abundant and yet leave millions of workers without work if those positions require different skills, credentials, locations or pay structures than current jobs.”

 

Bloomberg

Disney is laying off approximately 300 employees, primarily in human resources and technology roles, as part of ongoing job cuts since CEO Josh D'Amaro took over earlier this year. The layoffs follow previous reductions, including plans to eliminate up to 1,000 roles in April and further cuts in July affecting various corporate functions, particularly at Pixar and National Geographic. In its August earnings report, Disney indicated it was "evaluating ways to reduce costs" and had begun offering early-retirement buyout packages to long-serving executives. "We remain highly focused on reducing costs across the enterprise to create incremental capacity to invest for growth," Disney said.

 

CNBC

A federal appeals court has rejected a request to pause sanctions against two attorneys for President Donald Trump over their handling of his $10bn lawsuit against the IRS. The unanimous three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Alejandro Brito and Daniel Epstein had not shown they were likely to succeed in challenging U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ finding that they acted in bad faith, and it also deemed their appeal premature. Ms. Williams found that the lawsuit had been filed for an “improper purpose,” concluding that the parties were not genuinely adverse because Mr. Trump, as head of the executive branch, controlled the IRS. Brito was referred to the Florida Bar for possible discipline, while Mr. Epstein was barred for one year from obtaining certain permissions to appear in the Southern District of Florida. Mr. Trump’s legal team maintains that the underlying case concerned the improper leak of his tax information by an IRS contractor.

 

CNBC

Politico

Reuters

Sustainability-linked executive compensation has failed to produce sufficient environmental progress because ESG targets are often generic, easy to achieve, and too small a component of executive bonuses to influence decision-making, according to this ESG Today article. Despite companies achieving ESG targets at an average rate of 128%, the article's author says environmental pressures continue to worsen and proposes replacing existing measures with “Return on Planet” (ROP), a metric modeled on Return on Investment that would measure a company’s environmental impact using auditable, business-specific targets. The author recommends making ROP targets 15% to 25% of executive bonuses, compared with the typical 3% to 5% weighting for ESG measures, arguing that stronger incentives could encourage greater resource efficiency, supply chain diversification, climate resilience, and meaningful sustainability improvements.

 

ESG Today

Starbucks has scaled back sustainability targets and cut green-focused staff as CEO Brian Niccol pursues $2bn in cost reductions, while its 2030 emissions goal remains under review amid wider challenges.

 

Financial Times

The IRS needs to improve its oversight of high-impact artificial intelligence (AI) systems, according to a TIGTA report examining five of the agency’s 225 AI use cases as of December 2025. TIGTA found that two of the five cases lacked documented impact assessments, while four lacked testing documentation, and the IRS had not standardized procedures for evaluating data quality before it is used in high-impact AI models. TIGTA recommended ensuring required AI impact assessments are completed and establishing standardized data-quality evaluation processes. The IRS agreed with both recommendations and said it has implemented, or plans to implement, corrective actions.

 

Accounting Today

Basel Committee on ‌Banking Supervision chair Erik Thedéen has warned that fragmenting international cooperation could make it more difficult for regulators to identify and manage risks that increasingly span jurisdictions. "Geopolitical tensions are increasingly clouding the outlook," he said in a speech to the ‌24th ⁠International Conference of Banking Supervisors in Bali. "Fragmentation in supervision would ultimately contribute to fragmentation in finance. ​Information gaps would widen. Opportunities for arbitrage would grow. Cross-border risks ​would become harder to identify and manage."

 

Reuters

China has warned it will retaliate if the European Union introduces broad tariffs on Chinese goods, arguing that the proposed measures could undermine ongoing trade negotiations and disrupt China-EU trade and global supply chains. EU officials are preparing a package for leaders to consider in October that could include measures encouraging companies to reduce their reliance on Chinese suppliers and a new tariff mechanism modelled on the US Section 301 framework, which would allow the bloc to impose tariffs across entire industries more quickly than under existing rules. China’s Commerce Ministry described the potential mechanism as protectionist and warned against imposing discriminatory restrictions on Chinese companies or products. The intervention comes ahead of planned talks between EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on October 8th-9th, with Beijing and Brussels having set an October deadline to make progress on their existing trade disputes.

 

Bloomberg

South China Morning Post

Russia has intensified pressure on European companies operating in the country, placing the Russian assets of Nestlé, Metro, and Auchan under temporary management as Moscow responds to EU sanctions and support for Ukraine. A senior Russian government source suggested more European businesses, potentially including UniCredit and Raiffeisen, could face similar action. The Kremlin said the measures were linked to European countries’ alleged involvement in the war in Ukraine and could be reversed. Since the war began, Russia has imposed temporary administration on 135 firms affiliated with foreign companies, most from the EU, while the number of European businesses operating in Russia has continued to decline. The latest escalation follows the EU’s renewal of sanctions on more than 3,000 individuals and entities and comes amid tensions over roughly €210bn ($238bn) of frozen Russian sovereign assets. Major U.S. companies have largely avoided comparable measures. Moscow and Washington have discussed potential business opportunities following an eventual peace settlement in Ukraine.

 

Reuters

OpenAI has apologized for the hacking of an Australian government website by a rogue AI agent. In a blog post titled "How ‌we will do better for Australia", the ChatGPT maker acknowledged it had mishandled its response to the incursion, which occurred in June but was not made public until last week, and vowed to take accountability to "rebuild trust with the Australian people." OpenAI said in the blog post: "In June, during ​internal training and evaluation our models accessed Australian government websites in ways they were not authorised to . . . We also should have handled our response better. We are sorry and working to do better in the future." The Australian government has announced a rapid review into the incident, the first known hacking of a government website by an AI agent.

 

Reuters

Congress has passed legislation to formally end production of the penny, giving legal approval to a move the U.S. Mint began in 2025. The bipartisan Common Cents Act would halt production of pennies for general circulation while allowing existing coins to remain legal tender. The Mint has said producing each penny costs almost 4 cents, and ending production is expected to save $56m annually. The legislation also establishes procedures allowing cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest 5 cents as pennies gradually become less available. The measure would also permit the Mint to use a zinc inner layer in nickels if testing shows the alternative composition reduces production costs.

 

ABC News