Last November, I headlined one of these newsletters with the phrase ‘Confidence curtailed’ to sum up the dominant sentiment I had been hearing from CEOs and CFOs on third-quarter earnings calls. Three and a half months on, it seems fair to upgrade that broad assessment to something along the (less pithy) lines of ‘Feeling good enough to keep investing.’ Executive teams don’t see many reasons in today’s economy to pull back from their mid- and long-term plans.

Goldman Sachs researchers last week published some numbers that speak to this: Among S&P 500 companies that have recently reported earnings, they noted, Q4 capex was flat versus a year earlier. The caveat: That was after spending had spiked 20% in 2022. Outlays on R&D, meanwhile, were up 10% from a year earlier — the same growth rate as in late 2022. Onward.

— Geert De Lombaerde