Tech companies are souring on outsourcing.

According to a survey of 100 chief financial officers at technology companies by BDO USA, LLP, just 35 percent said they are currently outsourcing services or manufacturing to companies outside of the US. This represents a 43 percent decrease from the 2009 high when 62 percent of companies were outsourcing and a slight decline from 2010 (37 percent).

The doom and gloomers are growing in numbers.

On a day when the ADP employment report for May showed slower job growth than expected and the ISM Manufacturing Index plummeted in May, at least two new reports were released indicating the business community and investors are becoming increasingly nervous about the future.

The funded status of pension funds slipped for the first time in nine months.

The funded status of the typical U.S. corporate pension plan in May fell 2.3 percentage points to 86.9 percent, according to monthly statistics published by BNY Mellon Asset Management. This also erased nearly half of the gains achieved since the beginning of the year.    

One dozen companies paid no taxes over the most recent three-year period.

According to a study from Citizens for Tax Justice, the 12 companies paid an effective tax rate of negative 1.5 percent on $171 billion in profits. In the process, they reaped $62.4 billion in tax subsidies over the 2008-10 period.

CFOs around the world are feeling good--good enough to start spending some money.

But they're going to do so carefully.

Now this is what you can call inflation.

US employers are likely to shell out 8.5 percent more on healthcare costs in 2012 on top of an increase of 8 percent this year, according to an annual report on medical cost trends published by PwC's Health Research Institute.

A growing number of companies think it is very important that their employees be healthy and plan to do something about this.

A new study from Towers Watson found that three out of four companies said workforce health and promoting health and well-being will be more of a priority this year and next. In addition, 87 percent said it will be a higher priority over the next two to four years.

Inflation? What inflation?

Pundits are fretting that prices are poised to surge out of control. They are partly pointing to Friday's report that The Consumer Price Index increased 0.4 percent in April, pushing up the 12-month rate to a whopping 3.2 percent.

Is the economy steadily improving or is it at risk to slip back into a recession? Is inflation about to take off or are its fears unfounded?

The answer to these questions is debated daily, depending upon the published stat du jour.

Employees are once again ramping up their commitment to their 401(k) plans.

Just 2.4 percent of Defined Contribution plan participants stopped contributing in 2010, compared with 3.4 percent of participants in 2009, according to the ICI's latest quarterly study.