Volkswagen said that it had reduced its capital spending plans for the next five years by 11 percent.

Machinery orders, an indication of companies' capital spending plans, increased 16.9 percent in August.

But once that is done, capital spending plans will be on hold.

A capital spending plan must be maintained and updated.

Q. So if demand has disappeared and capital spending plans slashed, why are you feeling better?

It will also cut capital spending plans for this year by $300 million, to $3.7 billion.

Even American business leaders began to seem a little more optimistic, with capital spending plans starting to edge up.

Business is already beefing up its capital spending plans.

The remaining $134 million will come from the Board of Education's capital spending plan.

It has grounded 31 aircraft and cut $200 million from its capital spending plans.