Confidence in the US equipment finance market fell in October, month-on-month, according to the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation.

Confidence was indexed at 58.7 by the foundation in October through its monthly confidence index for the equipment finance industry (MCI-EFI), a decrease compared to the September’s index of 61.1.

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When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, only 14.8% of respondents said they believed business conditions would improve over the next four months, down from 22.2% in September. 7.4% expected business conditions to worsen, while the rest said they would remain the same over this period.

22.2% of the executives believed demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures would increase over the next four months, down from 29.6% in September. 7.4% anticipated demand to decline, as the rest said demand to ‘remain the same’.

In addition, 40.7% of survey respondents reported that they expected to hire more employees over the next four months, an increase from 37% in September. Over half (51.9%) of people surveyed expected no change in headcount over this period, while 7.4% expected to hire fewer employees.

Valerie Hayes Jester, president at Brandywine Capital Associates, said: "Demand is consistent but not what we would have expected coming into the fourth quarter. We see many of our small business customers delaying purchases or putting the equipment acquisition decision through more evaluation than we had seen in the last year. Margins are still under pressure given the amount of liquidity in the market. Portfolio performance continues to be strong."

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William H. Besgen, president and chief operating officer, Hitachi Capital America said: "While we have been optimistic about an improving economy, we have seen some recent signs of a potential slowdown, primarily in our transportation/truck business sales and credit applications. This business tends to lead the economy and so we are uncertain if this is an early sign of a potential slowdown in the U.S. economy."