CFOs have plenty of big decisions to make these days, ranging from where to invest, when to raise debt and how to manage AI. Here’s another, less obvious one: Is your stock trading on the right exchange?

General Motors became the latest company to answer that question when it announced that it would transfer from the New York Stock Exchange — where its stock traded for more than a century — to the Nasdaq. GM follows Nextdoor, Lumen Technologies and D-Wave Quantum, which also made the switch to Nasdaq from NYSE.

But it’s not a one-way street, as Kraft Heinz, Trinity Capital and Skydance headed in the opposite direction this year and joined the NYSE.

Behind the moves is the ongoing competition between the two exchanges. Hundreds of companies have switched sides over the past two decades, prompting another question for CFOs: What does a company gain by moving?

I connected with Lumen CFO Chris Stansbury for some answers. The company, which is transforming its business from telecommunications to fiber networks and digital infrastructure, moved its stock to Nasdaq in October after about three decades on the NYSE, both under its current and former names.

For decades, European defense companies had more time than demand. Now, it’s the opposite. Governments across the continent have committed billions of euros to rebuild their military capabilities, a shift that’s unlikely to reverse even if Russia’s war on Ukraine ended tomorrow.

European leaders continue to view Russia as a threat, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warning against complacency. “My biggest concern is the underestimated Russian impact on our societies,” he told Bloomberg Television on Oct. 19. “Russia is on the way to destabilize the entire political order of our European continent.”

At the same time, the boom in military spending is forcing executives to make choices about how to increase production, where to invest and whether to grow organically or through acquisitions.

It’s getting harder to find a corner of the market that’s untouched by AI. The technology is becoming part of more business models, with companies signing deals with AI firms or hyperscalers directly. Those transactions can generate substantial revenue and profits for shareholders. But they also raise a question for CFOs: At what point does benefiting from AI leave a company (too) exposed to it?

Budgeting used to be a fairly predictable, albeit intense and laborious exercise at many companies. Each September or October, finance leaders would kick off the process, which stretched over several months and involved number crunching, scenario planning, forecasting and – perhaps most importantly – compromising over which spending to prioritize. But with artificial intelligence upending their processes, many chief financial officers are realizing their old ways of budgeting no longer work.

Going into the year, bond traders were pricing in several rate cuts. Companies reacted by increasing their allocations to fixed-income instruments, while cutting their cash holdings, according to Clearwater Analytics, which tracks $1.6 trillion in holdings from roughly 800 companies, most of them US-based.

After peaking in June, duration started to decline as it became clear to treasurers that the war in Iran wouldn’t be ending soon, and that its inflationary effects would build over time.

Traders’ current outlook, which includes three further rate increases by the middle of next year, is making the case for treasurers to allocate more money to cash and cash-like instruments such as money market funds, and less to fixed-income securities.

Finding the right time to sell debt may soon become more difficult for CFOs. High energy prices are driving up inflation and interest rate expectations ahead of the US midterm elections in November, essentially shortening the window for executives to this month and October. Ahead of the Fed’s rate decision on Wednesday, I spoke to finance chiefs and advisors about where the credit markets are headed.