(AFP)
NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks dropped again Friday amid recession worries, adding to the week’s losses in anticipation of more aggressive central bank efforts to counter inflation.
Markets were unnerved by weak FedEx earnings as the company’s chief executive warned of a “worldwide recession” in an interview on CNBC.
Shares of FedEx plunged more than 20 percent after the company said it is closing stores, freezing hiring and parking aircraft.
Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management called the FedEx statements a major factor in the market pullback, adding “the trend in the data is heading in the wrong direction. (…) it looks as if consumers are starting to take a step back. ”
The S&P 500 finished at 3,873.33, down 0.7 percent for the day and nearly five precent for the week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.5 percent to 30,822.42, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.9 percent to 11,448.40.
Investors are poised for another steep rate hike from the Federal Reserve next week, of at least three-quarters of a percent, although some economists have raised the possibility of an even more aggressive step.
Among other companies, Uber shed 3.6 percent after it disclosed a “cybersecurity incident,” declining to comment on reports that a young hacker had gained access to the ride-hailing company’s computer network.