• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 13, 2022

Federal Reserve officials signaled plans Monday to consider a larger-than-expected 0.75-percentage-point interest-rate hike at their meeting this week, despite Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s attempt to avoid surprising markets and argument that the central bank can achieve its goals of tightening policy by shaping market expectations.

Trip Chowdhry, managing director of equity research at Global Equities Research, believes the downturn in the economy will prompt advertisers to consolidate the amount spent on advertising to “very few effective platforms like Meta and Google,” as well as YouTube and YouTube Shorts.

Companies such as SNAP, Twitter, and Pinterest will struggle to gain ad spend, he said. “Especially in this economy, advertisers are looking for where they can gain the most,” he added.

At Basis Technologies, which offers cloud-based workflow automation for marketers and advertising, the subject of the economy continues to surface, according to Tyler Kelly, the company’s president.

When asked to cite the biggest challenge this year “that he cannot control,” Kelly cited the economy. “We’re seeing some pullback in finance,” he said. “We’re seeing some pullback in a few retail areas.”

The company sees growth in travel and tourism, along with real estate and companies like REMAX that are still doing well and expected to do well through the year.

“The challenge also is to forecast correctly against any pullback that happens due to any recessionary trend,” Kelly said.

A report published by CivicScience shows that as inflation and gas prices begin to impact everything from food to healthcare, consumers are holding back when it comes to purchasing some items. Seventy-six percent of Americans say they choose not to purchase an item at the grocery store in the past month because of its high cost.

People also are making difficult choices when it comes to their healthcare. CivicScience data based on 3,646 responses from May 31 to June 2, 2022, also shows 27% of U.S. adults say they could not visit a doctor in the past 12 months for financial reasons, and 22% choose not to purchase prescription medications.