Released last week, the Q3/2014 CEO Economic Outlook Index from the Business Roundtable indicates that corporate executives are slightly more pessimistic today than they were three months ago.

According to the survey, U.S. CEOs expect the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 2.4 percent this year. And 73 percent expect revenue at their organization to grow within the next six months. However, 10 percent expect their company's capital spending to fall during the next half-year (vs. 8 percent in Q2/2014) and 20 percent expect their company's employment to decrease (vs. 14 percent in Q2/2014). See Figure 1, below.

"While some U.S. economic indicators are improving moderately, the results from our survey of CEOs seem to reflect an underperforming U.S. economy held back by policy uncertainty and growing conflicts around the world," says Randall Stephenson, chairman of the Business Roundtable and CEO of AT&T.