• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, April 23, 2008

Omnicom chief John Wren said the holding company remains "cautious" about a teetering economy, but business hasn't been noticeably impacted yet. And the company's first-quarter numbers would seem to bear that out, with U.S. organic revenue up nearly 7%--which Wall Street rewarded by sending the stock price up close to $2 a share Tuesday.

"We've not seen any significant reductions in client spending," Wren said on a conference call to announce the first-quarter results.

Later, he added that while clients are not bullish, they are apparently opportunistic. "They're not abandoning (their efforts) and they have learned this from prior recessions: the opportunity to continue to grow their top-lines and expand their market share during periods of uncertainty, and that's how I characterize the period we are currently in," he said.

Nonetheless, North American car sales are down--a potential issue, Wren said--although Omnicom has "never been overexposed to financial services and/or the housing markets." While the U.S. economy struggles, clients are looking for growth internationally, where Omnicom does 48% of its business and saw an 18.3% revenue jump in the first quarter.

"We're not suggesting we're immune from what's going on," Wren said. "It's just that we are reporting that we haven't seen the shifts yet."

Overall, in the first quarter, Omnicom saw worldwide revenue increase 12.5% to $3.2 billion ("traditional media advertising" accounted for 43.5%). U.S. dollars were up 7.6% to $1.7 billion. Domestic organic growth was up 6.7% or $103 million.

Company shares rose $1.84, nearly 4%, to $48.03 on Tuesday.