Prior to the Oct. 1 government shutdown, investors hadconfidence in the U.S. capital markets and a majority felt verysecure in investing in the U.S. publicly-traded companies.

That's according to the Center for Audit Quality's 2013 MainStreet Investor Survey. The poll of 1,013 investors in the U.S.found that investor confidence was at 69%.

Investors said the longer the shutdown continued, the more their confidence would erode.

Investor confidence would plummet to a record low of 39% ifCongress fails to raise the debt ceiling and the U.S. was todefault on its financial obligations, the survey showed.

“We've not seen investor confidence in the U.S. capital marketsfall below 60% in the seven years we've conducted our survey,including in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis,” said CAQExecutive Director Cindy Fornelli.

She added, “Staring at the real possibility that confidence dipsto 39% if the U.S. defaults should be an incentive for policymakersto resolve this situation.”

In addition to measuring confidence, the survey also exploredthe factors that influence investment decisions, including whattypes of information investors find essential to theirdecision-making process.

The survey found that investors consider more nonfinancialfactors as being essential to their investment decisions thanfinancial factors. Nonfinancial factors viewed as essential by fourin 10 investors or more include:

• The sector or industry the company is in;
• Whether a company has sound corporate governance in place;
• The company's key strengths and weaknesses;
• The strategy for future company growth;
• The company's risks and opportunities;
• Whether the company is operating in a socially responsiblemanner and/or an environmentally-friendly fashion.

The Washington-based CAO said it is a public policy organizationdedicated to enhancing investor confidence and public trust in theglobal capital markets.