Despite the recent global equity-markets meltdown, the most recent "CFO Outlook" study from Bank of America Merrill Lynch shows optimism among U.S.-based midmarket CFOs.

Last December, we reported that the bank's end-of-year "CFO Outlook" study indicated finance executives had a rosier outlook than at any time in the prior seven years. That optimism continues to flourish, according to the bank's recently released midyear update of the report, based on a survey of 250 finance executives who work in U.S.-based companies with between $25 million and $2 billion in annual revenue.

On a scale where 0 represents extremely weak and 100 represents extremely strong—and, thus, 50 represents a position that's neither optimistic nor pessimistic—respondents to the midyear survey gave the U.S. economy an average score of 63, up 4 points from the end-of-2014 score of 59. Confidence in the world economy rated lower but is also improving, with a score of 54 midyear vs. 51 last December. (See Figure 1, below.)