Mubasher: Positive sentiment among US small business owners fell during September, according to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) survey released on Tuesday.

Small business optimism index declined by 1.3 to 101.8 points month-on-month last September.

The tariff feuds was mainly cited as the reason of uncertainty among small businesses, with roughly 30% of polled owners highlighting the negative impact of tariffs on their business, the NFIB said.

“As small business owners continue to invest, expand, and try to hire, they’re doing so with less gusto than they did earlier in the year, thanks to the mixed signals they’re receiving from policymakers and politicians,” NFIB president and CEO Juanita D Duggan said.

Seven of the ten index components saw drops, with the remaining three stabilising.

Expectations of higher real sales and volumes better economic conditions were fewer, with their sub-gauges falling by 1 and 3 points to net 16% and 9%, respectively.

The sub-index of earnings trends fell by 2 points to net 3%, while plans to raise workforce dropped by 3 points to 17%.

Sub-indices of current job openings, current inventories and plans to expand inventories saw no change.

By 10:31 am GMT, the US dollar index, which gauges the US currency against a basket of six key peers, went down by 0.11% to 98.8580.