As the Trump Administration keeps piling on tariffs, U.S. stocktraders are averting their gaze and holding on tight. Corporatefinance chiefs are having a more difficult time.

Optimism among North American CFOs fell across the board in thethird quarter, driven by worry over trade policy and internal riskssuch as recruiting and maintaining top talent, according to asurvey released by Deloitte LLP on Thursday. After hitting anall-time high in the first quarter of this year, a measure of CFOs'optimism about their own companies' prospects fell for the secondstraight period to the lowest in a year.

“CFO optimism, while still strong, appears to be on the retreatamid concerns around global trade and interest rates, combined withthe evolving challenge to both identify finance talent and equipteams with the analytical skills they need,” Sandy Cockrell, theDeloitte Global CFO Program leader, wrote in an accompanyingreport.