Good morning, CFOs. Companies last year filed 321 financial restatements, the smallest amount since at least 2016, Ideagen data shows; PCAOB sorts out priorities under its new chair; plus, JPMorgan Chase is still betting on the American Dream.

Company financial restatements fell to their lowest levels in years in the 2025 fiscal year, as the U.S. securities regulator pivoted its agenda to seek weaker regulation under a new leader, WSJ Leadership Institute's Mark Maurer reports. He has the full details in today’s newsletter:

The data: U.S.-based public companies last year filed 321 restatements, the smallest amount since at least 2016, according to the latest data from research firm Ideagen Audit Analytics. Companies that make serious errors can face consequences such as a tumbling stock price, difficulty accessing funding or regulatory fines. (Read on below for some of the raw numbers.)

Companies restate results to correct mistakes that have crept into their financial statements; the reasons may range from human error to violations of accounting rules or outright fraud.

Key quote: “Although the company still makes the ultimate decision whether to restate financials, the pressure from the SEC is lower,” said Michael Dambra, an associate professor of accounting at the University at Buffalo. “We're going to be more into a deregulatory regime in the next couple of years under the current administration.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission sent fewer comment letters to companies amid the transition to Chair Paul Atkins from Gary Gensler. The letters, in which the SEC questions companies’ disclosures and accounting practices, often predict or trigger restatements. The SEC’s work also largely stalled during a government shutdown late last year.

Restatements notably surged in 2021 during the rise of SPAC mergers, in which blank-check companies acquire a private business and take it public.

In 2025, there were 111 major restatements and 210 minor ones, the smallest amounts since 2020 and 2023, respectively, Ideagen data showed.

A major restatement, known as “Big R,” involves a company reissuing financials to reflect the correction of one or more errors that materially affect those statements. In a revision, a company addresses more minor problems, or “little r”—for example, a misclassification of cash flows—by correcting the error in future financial statements without needing to alert investors.

Major restatements will sometimes be announced before a company delivers its results. That is because companies are required to report earnings without any significant errors, as well as to report major restatements within four business days of discovering errors.

—Mark Maurer

Earlier this month we featured a Q&A with WSJ’s Corrie Driebusch on how companies might report their financial results in the future.

One of our readers, Justin Moreschi, an assistant controller with Quaker Houghton, responded that he is skeptical the plan will be approved. He wrote to us:

“Regarding your question on if I think the SEC's proposal to mandate semi-annual reporting, I am the assistant controller of a public global chemical manufacturer, and ultimately, I do not think the proposal will become an approved regulation,” he wrote.

“Investors will still expect quarterly financial information, and reporting on a semi-annual basis would presumably raise our cost of equity/cost of capital, so even if it did become law, we would likely continue to report quarterly. Instead, I believe the SEC should continue to make its progress on simplification and rationalization of required disclosures and work with the FASB to further simplify required quarterly disclosures in a company's Form 10-Q,” he noted.

✏️ Join the conversation. Do you think the U.S. will shift to semi-annual reporting, and how would that change your role? (Hit Reply to this newsletter, and we may feature your comments.)

Meanwhile, here’s a look at…

📆 Earnings

• Conagra Brands
• Lamb Weston Holdings

📈 Economic Indicators

The Census Bureau reports retail and food service sales for February.

The Institute for Supply Management releases its Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index for March.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is asking the public to provide feedback on the auditing regulator's priorities over the next two to five years.

The request is one of the first moves by several new board members. Jim Logothetis was sworn in as PCAOB chair in February, along with board members Mark Calabria and Steven Laughton. George Botic remains a board member, and National Credit Union Administration chair Kyle Hauptman is set to join later this year.

"It is a new day for the PCAOB, but is not a new mission," Logothetis said on Tuesday at his first board meeting since joining. "What must evolve is how we carry out our mission in a rapidly changing environment."

The PCAOB is considering whether to make narrow revisions to its rules around the controls guiding how audit firms perform their audits, among other changes, Logothetis said. “Investor protection and audit quality will forever remain the PCAOB's North Star,” he said.

The public has until May 15 to submit comment letters.

—Mark Maurer

The Iran War. President Trump told aides he’s willing to end the U.S. military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, administration officials said. In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks.

U.S. gas prices going up. The national average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is now at over $4, its highest level since August 2022.

End of the American dream? Not so fast, says JPMorgan Chase, which announced its “American Dream Initiative” on Tuesday, a commitment from the nation’s largest bank to support small businesses, homeownership, access to healthcare and other economic priorities that Jamie Dimon, 70 years old and chief executive of JPMorgan since 2006, believes are crucial for the well-being of Americans.

The latest news of reductions in workforce comes from Oracle, which is trimming staff, even as it continues to build out costly data centers for artificial-intelligence development.

The cloud-computing and database company is cutting jobs across its business lines, according to employees and several posts on LinkedIn. On social media, workers who said they were based in the U.S. and India posted about their positions being eliminated.

Some affected employees told The Wall Street Journal that they had received an early morning email from “Oracle Leadership” that thanked them for their work and informed them it was their last day.

• Ex-BP CEO Bernard Looney to Lead Data-Center Developer
• Buying the Dip? This AI Agent Will Do It for You
• In Win for Trump, U.S. Firm Acquires Huge Congolese Cobalt Miner

• Fed Should Be Ready to Act to Address Inflation Concerns, Kansas City Fed’s Schmid Says
• Allbirds, Once Valued at $4 Billion, Just Sold Its Assets for Next to Nothing
• Unilever to Combine Foods Business With McCormick
• Spice Maker McCormick’s Rise From a Baltimore Cellar to a Global Food Power
• Washington State Adopts New Tax on Incomes Over $1 Million
• Drivers in Dire Crashes Relied Too Much on Ford’s Hands-Free Technology, NTSB Says

Where senior finance leaders confront today’s expanding remit. Connect on capital, regulation, technology, and talent — and lead with clarity.

Request Information.

The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal offers corporate leaders and professionals CFO analysis, advice and commentary to make informed decisions. We cover topics including corporate tax, accounting, regulation, capital markets, management and strategy.

Follow us on X @WSJCFO. The WSJ CFO Journal Team comprises reporters Kristin Broughton, Mark Maurer and Jennifer Williams, and Bureau Chief Walden Siew.

You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email Walden at walden.siew@wsj.com.