TCS’ Q4 report card comes amid storm clouds over the global economy triggered by US now-on, now-off tariff posturing that has thrown the world into a tizzy.

After days of stock market rout globally, and in the US, President Donald Trump declared, just hours ago, a three-month pause on reciprocal tariffs. The breather marked a rather unexpected U-turn after the stiff levies he imposed, which led to a global stock market meltdown that erased trillions of dollars in investors’ wealth.

For now, the rates for India and other countries will revert to a baseline of 10 per cent, although Trump has raised tariffs on China, one of America’s biggest trading partners, to a staggering 125 per cent after Beijing vowed a fresh trade offensive.

The tariffs per se are on goods that US imports, and do not have a direct bearing on Indian IT services companies, but they do cloud the outlook for the industry, which caters extensively to American clients.

“We had spoken about improving market sentiments and early signs of discretionary spend revival in January. This was not sustained due to many of the discussions around tariffs,” TCS CEO K Krithivasan said in a press conference. “We are observing delays in decision-making and project-starting with respect to discretionary investments.”

Krithivasan said the uncertainty was likely to settle over the “next few months” and he expects fiscal 2026 to be better than the prior year. The comments came a day after Trump said he would temporarily lower the hefty duties imposed on dozens of countries while ramping up pressure on China.

Earlier this month, when the US announced sweeping tariffs for countries across the world, including allies and major trade partners, IT pundits warned that a slowdown in decision-making and GDP growth in America over hefty tariffs may stifle tech demand and discretionary spending from specific verticals.

Retail and manufacturing verticals were being called out as particularly vulnerable.

While analysts will be keenly watching out for management cues from the USD 250-billion Indian IT pack’s assessment of the trade situation as it unfolds in coming quarters (as well as the trade negotiations in the offing that could sway equations) some are indeed hopeful that macro woes would nudge more American companies to chase efficiencies through outsourcing deals and tech adoption in the long-term.