Abhi Rajendran

He says orders of those kinds of goods are typical of business spending in general right now.

I do think that some of this is delayed demand that might have been sitting on the table for a while.

And I do think that there is a bit more certainty now.

And otherwise, the fundamentals of the U.S.

economy are

Setting aside, of course, energy prices and the situation with Iran look pretty good.

It's also possible that the situation in Iran caused new orders to pick up, says Kathy Bosjanczyk, chief economist at Nationwide.

On the other hand, Bosjansic says high energy prices, thanks to the war, could also be holding back demand.

I think you're going to see slightly worse demand in the U.S.

than expected at lower prices.

But you may not actually see that much of an impact on the gasoline side because of this substitution effect of people just choosing to drive instead of flying.

Storms, floods, and fires are ever more extreme.