Logistics Companies Hit Hard in Market Swoon

FedEx, UPS and Maersk are among the casualties as fear grows that a slowdown in China’s economy may hurt global trade

Wall Street Journal

August 25, 2015—Logistics and transportation companies fell sharply in Monday’s global stock market rout, with investors worrying that a downturn in China and other large economies would hurt companies that move goods around the world.

Shares of FedEx Corp. were down about 9 percent in morning trading before mounting a partial recovery to trade 4.9 percent lower at $148.37 Monday afternoon. Other global carriers, including United Parcel Service Inc. and Deutsche Post AG saw declines, with UPS off 3.7 percent at $95.51 and the DHL parent ending down 4 percent at $23.58. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 588 points, or 3.6 percent, at 15,871, having briefly fallen over 1,000 points.

The slide underscores how much logistics companies stand to lose if global economic growth and trade continue to slow. These companies have seen revenues soar 48 percent in the last five years, to $751 billion in 2014, according to Stifel, as companies have increasingly looked abroad to source and sell their products and supply chains have grown more complex.

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