--NYSE CEO: Fiscal cliff, euro-zone crisis, market snafus hurt
investor confidence
--Duncan Niederauer joins Campaign to Fix the Debt
--Uncertainty over taxes, regulation seen weighing on hiring,
investment
(Updates with comments from Greenway Medical Technologies
CEO.)
By Jacob Bunge
The head of the New York Stock Exchange said Monday that
investor confidence in U.S. equity markets has hit an all-time low
because of mounting concerns over the national budget deficit, the
euro-zone debt crisis and recent snafus in the stock market's
internal workings.
Duncan Niederauer, chief executive of NYSE Euronext (NYX), joins
a growing band of U.S. business leaders expressing fears over the
effect of rising U.S. debt against the backdrop of broader
macroeconomic concerns ahead of November's general election.
"The conflation of these [issues] is more than substantive
enough to have people at an all-time low in terms of investor
confidence," said Mr. Niederauer in an interview. "There's so much
uncertainty right now, and fixing the debt is a big part of that,
in my mind."
Mr. Niederauer this month joined the Campaign to Fix the Debt, a
nonpartisan effort launched in July that aims to focus political
and public attention on the issue. The nonpartisan movement has
also drawn the CEOs of Honeywell International Inc. (HON) and
Caterpillar Inc. (CAT).
Reforming the tax code and streamlining government programs are
mandatory as the U.S. faces automatic cuts to spending and the
expiration of tax reductions at the end of 2012, according to the
group, an offshoot of the Committee for a Responsible Federal
Budget.
The bipartisan organization projects that, unless reined in, the
U.S. national debt will rise to $21 trillion from the current $11
trillion over the next decade.
Looming increases to tax rates and automatic cuts to government
spending, representing a so-called "fiscal cliff" facing the U.S.
at the end of this year, have contributed to a grim outlook among
CEOs of public and private companies, Mr. Niederauer said
Monday.
The conundrum facing U.S. lawmakers, whose struggles to agree on
fiscal matters last summer contributed to the first-ever ratings
agency downgrade of the country's credit, has slowed companies'
pace of hiring and investing.
"The fiscal cliff is real and it's frightening to a lot of
people," said Mr. Niederauer. "People in Washington, both Democrat
and Republican, need to comprehend the seriousness of this issue,"
he said.
Mr. Niederauer said NYSE Euronext's participation in the effort
will contribute perspectives from big and small businesses, which
he said await clarity on how much they will pay in taxes and what
sorts of regulations they will face in the coming years.
The Big Board parent on Monday released the findings of an NYSE
survey of chief executives, which found broad backing for reduced
regulation and smaller government. Mr. Niederauer said in the
interview that in his own conversations, business leaders said that
what they wanted more than anything was certainty on such
issues.
Tee Green, CEO of Greenway Medical Technologies Inc. (GWAY),
said in an interview Monday that he is wondering about his
company's potential tax rate as Greenway looks to hire 200 to 300
people next year. He wants to hire them in the U.S., he said, but
is considering overseas locales due to a potentially higher cost of
doing business in the U.S.
"None of us knows what our corporate tax rate will be next
year," said Mr. Green, who visited the NYSE on Monday.
NYSE Euronext, he said, is not a "politically motivated
organization." Mr. Niederauer said he would work to ensure that
policy makers address fiscal matters, and "make sure it does not
become another political football."
Fears over the effect of the fiscal cliff have added to
long-simmering concerns over the fate of the euro zone that have
kept U.S. stock investors on the sidelines, Mr. Niederauer
said.
A series of breakdowns in the technology underlying the U.S.
equity market, including the problems with the Facebook Inc. (FB)
initial public offering in May and a $440 million trading loss this
month driven by faulty software at Knight Capital Group (KCG), have
also weighed on confidence, he said.
-Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@dowjones.com