U.S. trade policy has reemerged as the top concern from chief financial officers at some of the world's largest companies. More than 35 percent of CFOs taking the fourth-quarter CNBC Global CFO Council survey say U.S. trade policy is the biggest external risk factor facing their business, and nearly 75 percent of respondents expect U.S. trade policy to have a negative impact on their business over the next six months. Not a single CFO surveyed expects a positive impact as a result of U.S. trade policy.

Signs with the US flag and Chinese flag are seen outside a store selling foreign goods in Qingdao in China's eastern Shandong province on Sept. 19, 2018. AFP | Getty Images

The CNBC Global CFO Council represents some of the largest public and private companies in the world, collectively managing nearly $5 trillion in market value across a wide variety of sectors. The survey was conducted from Nov. 13–19, 2018. Throughout the survey, trade shows up as a nagging concern for CFOs, especially for members in Europe and Asia. More than 46 percent of European CFOs and over 44 percent of Asia CFOs say U.S. trade policy is the biggest external risk factor facing their business. Also in Europe, nearly two-thirds of CFOs there say the cost of raw materials will outpace rising costs of labor and capital over the next six months, likely a result of higher tariffs.

More than half of the EMEA and APAC CFOs surveyed named trade, trade war with China, tariffs, or "uncertainty created by U.S. administration" as the most important business or economic story of 2018. Most North America-based CFOs feel the same way. The concerns about trade come amid increasing stock market pessimism from CFOs. A majority taking the survey now think that the Dow Jones Industrial Average will fall below 23,000 — another 2,000 points down — before ever reaching a new record above 27,000. In North America, trade worries also show up in the way CFOs feel about Trump administration officials and the president himself. There appears to be a strong correlation between these officials' views on trade and whether CFOs approve of their stewardship of the U.S. economy.