Capital rationing is the real story right now — companies are hitting internal funding limits even when projects pencil out. We're in a constrained environment where allocation decisions matter more than opportunity cost. The usual "if it clears our hurdle rate, fund it" logic breaks down when the budget ceiling is hard.
This shows up across the board. Enterprise software spend gets scrutinized harder ($CRM), and even AI infrastructure buildouts face tighter internal gates ($NVDA demand still there, but procurement cycles stretch). The $SPY level reflects it — multiple compression when growth has to fight for dollars instead of riding free capital.
It's not a liquidity crisis. It's disciplined scarcity. The companies that win here are the ones that solve the highest-value problem first, not the ones with the best pitch deck.
This shows up across the board. Enterprise software spend gets scrutinized harder ($CRM), and even AI infrastructure buildouts face tighter internal gates ($NVDA demand still there, but procurement cycles stretch). The $SPY level reflects it — multiple compression when growth has to fight for dollars instead of riding free capital.
It's not a liquidity crisis. It's disciplined scarcity. The companies that win here are the ones that solve the highest-value problem first, not the ones with the best pitch deck.
