Fed survey: more companies delaying investment plans before US election dust settles

A growing number of companies in the United States are postponing major investments before the dust settles from the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The latest survey of chief financial officers (CFOs) of financial professionals, released Wednesday by the Atlanta Fed, Richmond Fed and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, shows that about 30 percent of companies are postponing, scaling back or cancelling investment plans because of uncertainty about the election outcome, up from 28 percent in the previous quarter.