Shares of FedEx suffered their worst drop in decades, dragging down broader indexes, after the company warned that a slowing global economy will cause it to fall short of sales and profit expectations.
“Global volumes declined as macroeconomic trends significantly worsened later in the quarter, both internationally and in the U.S.,” FedEx chief Raj Subramaniam said in a release Thursday. “While this performance is disappointing, we are aggressively accelerating cost reduction efforts.”
FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam said in an interview with CNBC that he believes the slowdown in his business signals the start of a global recession.
“We are a reflection of everybody else’s business, especially the high-value economy in the world,” he said.
The company’s shares were down by nearly 24 percent on Friday. If sustained, the loss would be the biggest since 1978, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Shares of UPS were down 4.5 percent on Friday morning.