Investors, at least, are starting to show some increased confidence in the the U.S. economy and capital markets, even if corporate CFOs remain pessimistic.

In its 6th annual “Main Street Investor Survey,” the Center for Audit Quality said 65 percent of investors expressed a positive outlook on the economy and capital markets, up 4 percentage points from 2011. CFOs, on the other hand, are getting more sullen about the American economy, with hiring, capital spending plans, and earnings expectations all down from a quarter earlier, according to a quarterly poll by Duke University and CFO magazine.

In the CAQ survey, investor confidence plunged to a low of 61 percent in 2011 from a high of 84 percent in the first year of the poll, 2007, preceding the financial crisis. In the latest poll, 65 percent of investors said they had some, quite a bit, or a great deal of confidence in U.S. capital markets. The CAQ says the increase from last year “may signal that confidence in U.S. capital markets has stabilized or perhaps begun to recover.” The report acknowledges, however, that the confidence level is still 19 percentage points lower than it was before the financial crisis that led to extended economic stagnation.

All in all, the CAQ says investors remain confident in U.S. public companies and the financial information they publish. Nearly 70 percent of investors expressed positive sentiment toward audited financial information released by U.S. publicly traded companies, and 71 percent expressed confidence in investing in U.S. public companies. When investors thought about who is looking out for their interests, public company auditors, along with financial advisors and brokers and audit committees of publicly-traded companies top the list. At the bottom of the list, investors ranked corporate management, corporate boards, and government regulators.

In the survey of CFOs, however, 44 percent of U.S. CFOs said they have become more pessimistic about the economy, twice the number who said they have become more optimistic. CFOs cite a number of reasons for their lingering concerns: thin profit margins, health care costs, difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified employees, and difficulty in maintaining morale among employees. They also cite weak demand for products, federal government policies, pricing pressure and global competition, and global economic instability. CFO said they generally are not swayed into increasing capital spending or hiring plans by federal policy to further reduce interest rates.

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