US stock futures fell on Friday as Wall Street headed for a losing week, and traders digested an ugly earnings warning from FedEx.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 273 points, or 0.9%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures are down 0.9% and 1%, respectively.
FedEx shares fell 19% after the shipping company I pulled the whole year directives It said it would implement cost-cutting initiatives to counter weak global shipment volumes as macroeconomic trends worsened significantly.
The three major averages were on track to record a fourth losing week in five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 3.70% this week, while the S&P 500 is down 4.08%. The Nasdaq Composite is down 4.62%, heading for its worst weekly loss since June.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 173 points, or 0.56%, to its lowest close since July 14. The Nasdaq Composite is down 1.43%, while the S&P 500 is down 1.13%.
Traders are concerned that markets will retest June lows after a surprisingly warm reading in the August CPI report indicated an increasingly difficult path to lower inflation by the Federal Reserve.
“They may have a tough choice,” iCapital’s Anastasia Amoroso said Thursday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.”
“Before they say, we’ll try soft landing and lower inflation. Now they may have to choose. Either it’s soft landing or lower inflation. In other words, they may have to engineer more hard measures on economic growth to bring down inflation,” she added.
On the economic front, traders are expecting the latest consumer confidence data at 10 AM ET on Friday.
