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Many companies around the world are gearing up for a spending spree — unless they happen to be located in Japan. That is one of the conclusions from the results of the Duke University/CFO Magazine Business Outlook survey conducted in June. The survey gauged the second-quarter economic and business outlooks of more than 1,200 finance and other corporate leaders from companies of all sizes. The survey covers selected countries from all regions of the world: North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. In most of the regions, a plurality of respondents says that their companies will begin to consume some of their cash reserves over the next 12 months. In the United States and Europe, about four in ten respondents agree that their firms are likely to begin deploying their cash reserves in the coming year. That sentiment is shared by 50% of the respondents in China and 56% of the corporate executives in Latin America. The lone exception is Japan, where only 13% of the executives surveyed think their companies will spend some of their cash reserves. More than half (52%) indicate that their companies will be hanging on to their cash, and the rest (36%) remain uncertain what the future will hold.

US households' net worth rose 1.2% to reach $89.1 trillion in the second quarter, according to the Federal Reserve. Americans' housing wealth climbed $474 billion, and stock and mutual fund portfolios increased by $452 billion.

U.S. factories ramped up activity in September, shaking off a one-month contraction in a sign America was resisting the downward pull of the sluggish global economy. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity rose to 51.5 from 49.4 the prior month, beating analyst expectations in a Reuters poll. Levels above 50 indicate the sector is expanding. "This is a relief," said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. Factory output was a weak spot for the U.S. economy early in the year as a global slump weighed on American factories. More recently, net exports added to economic growth in the second quarter the latest report showed signs factories' future sales could increase, with the ISM index for new orders rising to 55.1 from 49.1 in August. Manufacturing is grappling with the lingering effects of a strong dollar and lower oil prices. Economic growth is also listless in major U.S. trading partners in the European Union and Asia.

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said she would trigger the formal process for Britain’s exit from the European Union by the end of March, setting in motion the U.K.’s severing of its more than 40-year-old ties to the bloc. Mrs. May told the British Broadcasting Corp. in an interview that she hopes that preparatory talks can start now that EU leaders have a better idea of when the government will trigger Article 50 of the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty, a process that will formally begin Britain’s exit.

China's central bank said the country will use the yuan's official entry into the International Monetary Fund's basket of reserve currencies to deepen financial reforms and expand the opening up of its financial sector. In a statement released, the yuan's inclusion in the Special Drawing Rights basket, the People's Bank of China said the event marked a milestone in the yuan's internationalization and an acknowledgement of the progress China has made in its economic development, reform and opening up. The PBOC said the addition of the yuan into the basket, joining the U.S. dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen, will help increase the representativeness, stability and attractiveness of the SDR and improve the international monetary system. China will also contribute to global growth, financial stability and better global economic governance, the PBOC said.

Consider this figure: $136 billion per year. That’s the research firm IDC’s estimate of the size of the big data market, worldwide, in 2016. This figure should surprise no one with an interest in big data. But here’s another number: $3.1 trillion, IBM’s estimate of the yearly cost of poor quality data, in the US alone, in 2016. While most people who deal in data every day know that bad data is costly, this figure stuns. While the numbers are not really comparable, and there is considerable variation around each, one can only conclude that right now, improving data quality represents the far larger data opportunity. Leaders are well-advised to develop a deeper appreciation for the opportunities improving data quality present and take fuller advantage than they do today. The reason bad data costs so much is that decision makers, managers, knowledge workers, data scientists, and others must accommodate it in their everyday work. And doing so is both time-consuming and expensive. The data they need has plenty of errors, and in the face of a critical deadline, many individuals simply make corrections themselves to complete the task at hand.