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The rough week for shares of Truth Social's parent company continued Friday. 

Shares of Trump Media & Technology (DJT), the company majority-owned by former President Donald Trump, were recently down more than 3%, trading around $14.25 per share after finishing last week near $18. 

The stock is falling as investors digest the possibility that Trump or other company insiders and investors could begin selling shares following the expiration of lock-up agreements that prohibited them from doing so. Trump in an interview last week said, "I'm not going to sell my shares."

Selling by major shareholders would likely exert further downward pressure on a stock that earlier this year changed hands at around $70, soaring shortly after Truth Social's then-parent merged with a blank-check company. 

The expiration of the lock-up agreements could also "facilitate increased short selling in the stock," according to a Thursday note from S3 Partners.

Trump Media was as of Thursday the worst-performing stock in the Russell 1000 since Aug. 5, according to Bespoke Investment Group. The index, which represents the largest 1,000 U.S. companies by market capitalization, has broadly risen during that time. 

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FedEx (FDX) shares plunged 15% Friday, a day after the package delivery giant missed quarterly estimates and reduced its forecast as it faced what Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rajesh Subramaniam called a "challenging Q1 demand environment," especially in the U.S.

Subramaniam told analysts that weakness in the industrial economy dragged down business-to-business (B2B) volumes. Chief Customer Officer Brie Carere added that the drop in B2B sales led to a 3% volume decline in U.S. domestic express services.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) John Dietrich noted that the results "were negatively affected by soft revenue trends, with a global decline in priority volume and growth in deferred volume."

Deitrich said in light of the first-quarter performance, FedEx was cutting the top end of its full-year adjusted earnings per share (EPS) outlook to $21 from $22. FedEx also sees revenue growth to be in a low-single-digit percentage, down from its earlier forecast of a low- to mid-single-digit percentage.

Following the report, Jefferies reduced its price target to $275 from $300. The analysts argued that with the current quarter expected to be pressured and its first-half EPS estimates down 20%, "we do not think the company can achieve the low end of its EPS guide."

Shares of FedEx plunged more than 15% in late-morning trading Friday to $254.30, less than 1% above where they began the year.

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When the Federal Reserve starts a rate cut cycle with a jumbo-sized slash in the past, it hasn’t always worked out well for the economy.

After holding its key interest rates at decades-high levels in a bid to bring down inflation, the Federal Reserve made its first rate cut in four years on Wednesday. While the Fed generally reduces the federal funds rate a quarter-of-a-percentage point at a time, the central bank was more aggressive this week, reducing rates by 50 basis points.

In some recent cases, super-sized rate cuts have come before a recession. The Fed, and some economists, think there are reasons that won't happen this time.

This isn't the first time the Fed has taken a bigger swing at rates to open a rate-cut cycle.

In 2001 and 2007, the Fed faced similar situations. After keeping interest rates elevated for an extended period, central bankers cut them quickly by 50 basis points (bp). In these cases, the sharp cuts to interest rates weren’t enough to stave off a recession.

“On all the recent occasions when the Fed has accelerated up to 50bp cuts, bad things have then happened,” wrote a team of Deutsche Bank analysts led by research strategist Jim Reid this week.

But while the rate cuts didn't avert an economic slowdown, the size of the cuts may not have been the problem, Deutsche Bank wrote in its note. “Correlation isn’t causation, and it’s hardly like the GFC (Great Financial Crisis) only happened because the Fed opened with 50 bps,” the note said.

By most accounts, economists still predict that the Federal Reserve will achieve a soft landing, in which the economy slows enough to tame inflation but not so much that it tips into a recession.

“Recession alarm bells should sound a bit muted with an encouraging employment report, solid gains in retail sales, and a rebound in industrial production easing fears of an economy on the precipice of a downturn,” wrote Oxford Economics US Economist Matthew Martin on Wednesday.

Unlike in 2001 and 2007, the Federal Reserve is working offensively rather than defensively, Deutsche Bank said Friday. In both historical examples, economists said the Federal Reserve was cutting to try to stabilize an already volatile economy.

Today, central bankers are trying to navigate an economy that has been anything but usual in the wake of the pandemic.

"The 2024 cut reflects a more complex balancing act," Deutsche Bank analysts wrote. "The Fed is navigating a post-pandemic world grappling with persistent inflation while trying to achieve a 'soft landing' for the economy."

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A federal lawmaker representing the Esan North-East/Esan South-East Federal Constituency in Edo State, Prince Henry Odianosen Okojie has reportedly escaped an a**@**ination attempt.

Okojie, the husband of the actress Mercy Johnson, was reportedly att@cked by armed men suspected to be political thugs at his residence in Uromi on Friday morning, September 20.

Okojie’s media aide, Michael Ihaza, in a statement said the attempt was unsuccessful owing to the intervention of security personnel attached to the lawmaker.

“The armed thugs who disguised as police officers along with two others, invaded the residence of Hon. Okojie, claimed to be on appointment and proceeded to the sitting room.

Following the intervention of the security personnel attached to the lawmaker, two of the armed thugs fled leaving behind the driver and another who are currently being interrogated by officers from the Area Command of the Nigeria Police Force, Uromi.

The suspects have so far made a confessional statement stating that they were sent on the mission by People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leaders in Esan North East Local Government Area,” the statement added.

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