Over the last two years, investors have treated AI as a straight-line story: more models, more tokens, more data centers, more chips, more revenues and eventually massive productivity gains. The problem is that the spending cycle has moved much faster than the cash-flow cycle. And now with full automation remaining a mirage, a correction is likely to happen. It can travel from LLM companies to hyperscalers, then to data-center builders, chip companies and eventually the fab ecosystem.

Indian equity markets may be entering a year where the headline index tells only half the story. The Nifty 50 has recovered from volatility and remains a strong representation of India’s largest businesses, but the next phase of market leadership may not come from the same narrow set of large-cap names that dominated previous cycles.

Bull markets rarely begin when the world looks perfect. In fact, they usually begin when the news still looks terrible, investors are nervous, and the most common question in the room is: “What if things get worse?” That is exactly what the old market phrase means when it says bull markets climb a wall of worry.

Markets do not ring a bell before they recover. They look broken, headlines look frightening, oil looks unstoppable, and sentiment feels hopeless. That is exactly why turning points are so powerful. The reaction to the Iran war has been sharp, but the damage priced into Indian equities now appears far greater than the damage visible in India’s underlying macroeconomy. This is not the beginning of a structural breakdown. It is a fear-driven dislocation in a market that had already gone through a prolonged correction and is now being offered another chance to re-rate.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on emergency tariffs draws a clear constitutional line: a president cannot impose sweeping tariffs at whim, by proclamation or social media announcement, without statutory grounding and due process. Trade taxes must follow legal authority. Blanket, rationale-free escalation under emergency powers is no longer defensible.