Small US businesses still hoping for tax reform, Obamacare repeal

Small businesses in the States remained confident the new US administration would be able to deliver on its key campaign pledges of tax cuts, repealing Obamacare and rolling back regulation.

The National Federation of Independent Businesses's confidence index slipped by 0.9 points to 103.6, but remained near its peak level of 105.9 hit in January, following the last presidential elections.

"A continuation of the high levels of optimism in the small business sector will depend heavily on Congressional progress on the major issues for small business owners: healthcare, tax reform and regulatory relief," the NFIB said in a statement.

For his part, Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, called attention to a sub-index tracking firms' capital investment decisions.

It rose by 2 points to 30% in June - its highest since September 2007.

"If that rate of increase can be sustained, it signals non-oil business capex growth of roughly 10% year-on-year, a pace last seen, briefly, in 2012."