FedEx posts loss, gives low forecast

BURLINGTON, Iowa (Reuters) - Package delivery company FedEx Corp posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday due to high fuel prices, a weak U.S. economy and a previously announced write-down, and issued a weak forecast for fiscal 2009.

The news sent the company's shares down 5 percent in premarket trading and was expected to weigh heavily on the U.S. stock market. FedEx is considered a gauge of U.S. business activity.

"For me, the shocking part is the guidance," said Al Meyers, portfolio manager for the AHA Diversified Equity Fund, which owns FedEx shares. "The management at FedEx are straightshooters and give conservative guidance.

"This is all based on energy prices and it's simply shocking," he added.

The company blamed its weak fiscal 2009 forecast on the impact of high fuel prices on demand for its services.

Following the news, U.S. equity index futures tumbled to their low of the session and government bond prices rallied back from overnight losses. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury, moving inversely to its price, fell back below 4.2 percent.

Memphis-based FedEx reported a fiscal 2008 fourth-quarter loss of $241 million, or 78 cents a share, compared with a profit of $610 million, or $1.96 a share, a year earlier.

Excluding a one-time charge of $891 million, FedEx reported earnings of $1.45 a share. Analysts' average forecast was $1.47, according to Reuters Estimates.

The charge was related to a name change for FedEx Kinko's. Earlier this month FedEx said it was changing the name of FedEx Kinko's -- which has struggled in recent quarters as its core copy print business has underperformed -- to FedEx Office. FedEx bought Kinko's in 2004.