“Impactful” is a heinous travesty of the language. I’ve actually seen “impactfulness” used too. Also bad is “impacts” … “the stock market has suffered several impacts due to low business confidence.” This cumbersome wording tries to amp up the drama. It’s much cleaner to say “The stock market has been affected by low business confidence.” Aside from the shock value of replacing “affected” with impacted, a metaphor for bodily collision, many have turned to impacted because the subtle difference between affected and effected intimidates them.

Be the better person. Avoid the hokey metaphor.

Btw, media uses “slammed” and “pounds” and other Batman words simply because they get more clicks than rebuked or chastized. Don’t be a headline writer.