Stocks fell Friday as Wall Street wrapped up one of its worst weeks in months and traders reacted to an ugly earnings warning from FedEx about the global economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 139.40 points, or 0.45%, to close at 30,822.42. The S&P 500 shed 0.72% to end the week at 3,873.33. The Nasdaq Composite slid 0.90% to finish at 11,448.40. It was the worst week for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq since June.
Shares of FedEx plunged 21.4%, their worst daily drop ever, after the shipments company withdrew its full-year guidance and said it will implement cost-cutting initiatives to contend with soft global shipment volumes as the global economy “significantly worsened.”
Transport stocks are typically seen as a leading indicator for the stock market as well as the economy, and FedEx pointed to weakness in Asia as one of the main reasons for its negative outlook. Shares of shipping rivals UPS and XPO Logistics dropped about 4.5% and 4.7%, respectively, and Amazon’s stock fell 2.1%.
FedEx’s announcement comes soon after a hotter-than-expected inflation report in the U.S. on Tuesday, which raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will be forced to cause a recession to cool prices. That data sparked a decline of more than 1,200 points for the Dow.
“There is a lot of nervousness about how the global economy can affect the U.S. economy now, while the U.S. economy is dealing with its own set of very serious issues. I think that dynamic is what people have woken up to,” said Callie Cox, U.S. investment analyst at eToro.
The three major averages suffered their fourth losing week in five, and the summer comeback rally looks increasingly like a bear market bounce. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 4.1% this week. The S&P 500 lost 4.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped about 5.5%.
