Outlook Cloudy for Ad Agency Interpublic

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Advertising giant Interpublic(IPG Quote) could only talk psychology when gazing into the near-term future.

The firm, which barely topped analysts' third-quarter expectations Wednesday, declined to provide specific financial guidance for the coming quarter or year. As with newspaper publishers, TV broadcasters and the cyclical media trade in general, the recession has crushed the advertising business as companies drastically reduce their ad spending in an effort to trim costs.

Referring to the overall mindset of those ad buyers, Chief Executive Michael Roth said in a statement that "client sentiment has stabilized, but remains cautious, which makes it difficult to predict what growth will look like in 2010."

As for the just-ended quarter, Interpublic said net income was $24 million, or 3 cents a share, better than the breakeven bottom line analysts were expecting. A year ago, the agency earned $45.7 million, or 8 cents a share.

Revenue, meanwhile, declined 18% to $1.43 billion, about even with the consensus target of $1.42 billion.

Interpublic has slashed costs -- it reduced salaries and related expenses by nearly 14% in the quarter, for example, and has fired some 5,100 employees over the last 12 months -- and it will evidently continue to do so (though it didn't mention the need for further layoffs).