Mumbai, May 14 -- Confidence among the U.S. small businesses fell for the fourth straight month in April as firms turned more cautious in the face of significant uncertainty caused by the Trump administration's trade tariff policy, survey data from the National Federation of Independent Business showed on Tuesday.
The NFIB Small Business Optimism index shed 1.6 points to reach 95.8 in April. Morale sunk below the 51-year average of 98 for the second month in a row, the industry body said.
Among the three index components, three rose, six fell and one was unchanged. Business expectations and unfilled job opening contributed most to the decline in the headline index.
The uncertainty index fell 4 points from March to 92, which was well abov...