recession

In a new report titled Pouring Recessionary Gasoline On a Secular Fire, S&P Global outlines trends that will increase the pressure on an already challenged media industry. “Margins and cash flow for global media companies, more than their leverage, will remain depressed as streaming struggles to achieve profitability and linear TV weakens,” is the bottom line, as far as S&P is concerned.

Wall Street racked up more losses Friday, as worries mounted that the Federal Reserve and other central banks are willing to bring on a recession if that’s what it takes to crush inflation. The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, its third straight drop. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.8% and the Nasdaq composite lost 1%. The major indexes marked their second straight weekly loss.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite each fell 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.9%. Smaller company stocks fell even more, pulling the Russell 2000 index 1.2% lower. The indexes marked their first losing week in the last three.

The S&P 500 ended 0.1% lower after having been down as much as 1.2% earlier in the day. The Nasdaq composite also trimmed its deficit, falling 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.1% gain. The indexes all notched gains for the week.

A late-afternoon rally on Wall Street helped stocks close higher Friday, though the major indexes still wound up finishing lower for the week after several days of bumpy trading. The S&P 500 rose 0.5% after wavering between small gains and losses for much of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq composite ended essentially flat after swinging between a 1% gain and an 0.8% drop.

In another sign of the toll that macroeconomic disruption has been taking on the ad economy, more than a third of advertisers (35%) say they have reduced their 2022 advertising budgets due to increasing inflation and/or disruptions in their supply chain.

The job market is booming, so why is the tech industry getting hit with layoffs?

With a strong probability of a recession to start by the end of year, according to many analysts, a new estimate projects that a downturn in the economy could drive a 9.6% decline in TV advertising this year to $78 billion, according to MoffettNathanson Research. An estimate with no recession projects total TV advertising would rise 6% to $86 billion — from $81 billion in 2021.

Another drop for stocks on Friday has pushed the S&P 500 index 20 percent below its peak set early this year. The benchmark index was down 2% for the day in early afternoon trading and on pace for its seventh straight losing week.

The U.S. economy has never before come to such a sudden, violent stop, crating into a probable deep recession with millions likely to lose their jobs by summer.