Stephen Carroll

It's pressuring valuations and the outlook for big tech.

This is what markets look right now in the moment this Friday.

Let's speak to Natalie Gallagher, board principal economist.

and director at board.

There is a lot going on in the world right now.

We focused on the correction in the NASDAQ 100 as being a consequence of what's been happening around the world.

Actually, a lot of that still relates to what's happening in AI.

But in the here and now this Friday, the war in Iran drives markets and it drives the sentiment of technology investors.

Where are we at in this global economy?

One industry that is sensitive to that, Riley Griffin was just talking about it, Meta committing to invest in seven LNG-powered plants for one specific data center site.

You've been looking at the data of how the war in Iran is impacting LNG.

What are you seeing?

The other side of the conflict in Iran and something specific to that region is the production of helium and sulfur-based compounds, critical components or materials in chip fabrication.

Both, they provide stabilization in the etching process, in the deposition process.

A lot of that happens in Qatar.

Again, are you seeing data that suggests some kind of long-term impact or indeed in the short term, a crisis of supply in those markets?

away from, I guess, the short term in the war in Iran, that there probably still is a debate around the health of the global economy, which in the technology context has just been underpinned by massive commitments to spend, the impact on raw materials, labor.

How close are you tracking right now the consistency of capital expenditures that relate to data center in particular?

Natalie, people, at least on this program, have been split on drawing parallels between this economic shock that is a war in Iran and some of what we saw in the early part of the COVID era in its impact in supply chain shipping, for example.

Are you seeing any similarities or parallels?