相较于大型企业的韧性，中小企业正面临严峻挑战。受到中东地缘政治危机的影响，原物料成本上升且供应链中断，导致小企业信心下滑，资本支出降至2009年以来的低点，价格指数也显示通膨可能再度加速。
尽管伊朗战争升温对全球非科技股造成压力，但人工智慧（AI）领域的巨额资本支出繁荣遮蔽了地缘政治冲突的负面影响。例如甲骨文等公司的扩产计划虽引发股价短暂回档，但华尔街预估AI基础设施投资将持续强劲增长。
US headline inflation topped 4% last month, but market reaction was minimal as core inflation came in below expectations and traders expect the Fed to hold rates next week. However, alternative measures like supercore and sticky prices are rising, and persistent service and food inflation rule out any rate cuts.
Unlike resilient large corporations, small businesses are facing severe challenges. Driven by the Middle East crisis, rising input costs and supply chain disruptions have dampened small business optimism, dragging capital expenditure to its lowest level since 2009 and signaling potential inflation reacceleration.
Although the escalating war in Iran has dragged down global non-tech equities, the massive capital expenditure boom in artificial intelligence (AI) has masked the negative impact of the geopolitical conflict. While capacity expansion plans of firms like Oracle triggered short-term selloffs, Wall Street expects AI infrastructure investment to grow robustly.