NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — FedEx Corp. said its fiscal second-quarter profit exceeded its forecast as international and ground shipments rose, bolstering economists' assessments that a global recovery is under way.

Earnings will be $1.10 a share for the period that ended in November, FedEx said late yesterday. The shares rose $2.25, or 2.6 percent, to $89.77 at 10:21 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading after reaching $90.50, the highest intraday since September 2008.

Investors' reaction underscored Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx's role as an economic bellwether. The world's largest cargo airline flies goods ranging from industrial parts to electronic equipment to financial documents, making its business a proxy for domestic and overseas commerce.

"It's definitely an up arrow for the global economy," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. "It's another unexpected bit of good news. I'm still somewhat cautious that things have really improved, but there's definitely something going right here."

The profit beats the company's projection of 65 to 95 cents a share, as well as the 86-cent average of 17 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. FedEx released the preliminary earnings after the NYSE closed yesterday.

International air volumes rose each month during the quarter as businesses restocked inventories, said FedEx, which also cited improvements in U.S. ground deliveries and savings from cost cuts. FedEx said in April it was eliminating 1,000 jobs as part of a plan to trim expenses by $1 billion. Full quarterly results are scheduled to be released on December 17.

Overseas demand has "improved significantly" since the fiscal first quarter, especially in Asia and Latin America, chief financial officer Alan Graf said in a statement.

International air shipments are among FedEx's most profitable offerings, generating an average of $57.81 in revenue for each piece in fiscal 2009 compared with $16.21 for domestic packages. The company is No. 2 in the world in package deliveries, trailing United Parcel Service Inc.

FedEx is "a leading indicator in the transportation sector," said Michael Cuggino, who manages $5 billion including FedEx shares as president of Permanent Portfolio Funds in San Francisco. "It gives further indications that the economy continues to improve and assuming that's the case, that should reflect in higher stock prices in a lot of areas."

The company's shares climbed 36 percent this year through yesterday, topping the 22 percent gain for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

The quarterly results built on other signs that the economy has bottomed and that a recovery is already under way.

A loss of 11,000 jobs in November was the fewest since the recession began, the US Labor Department said on December 4. Robert Hall, who leads the National Bureau of Economic Research panel that dates the onset and end of recessions, said the same day that the slump may be over. Payrolls are among the top indicators tracked by the committee.

US manufacturing rose for a fourth straight month in November, according to a December 1 report from the Institute for Supply Management, which surveys supply-chain executives.

"After the jobs and manufacturing numbers and now this from FedEx, it does look like there's some thrust here," said Donald Ratajczak, chief consulting economist at Morgan Keegan & Co. in Atlanta.

"It has all the characteristics you see in the early stages of a recovery. It's very reinforcing," said Ratajczak, who previously ran Georgia State University's Economic Forecast Center, where he won acclaim from the Boston Federal Reserve Bank for his inflation forecasts in the 1990s.

The US economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual pace in the third quarter after a yearlong contraction. Outside the US, the revival in world trade reflects the efforts of governments to jump-start their economies.

Manufacturing in China last month expanded at the fastest pace since April 2004, according to a purchasing managers' index released December 1 by HSBC Holdings Plc. South Korea reported its first increase in exports in 13 months.

FedEx has been retrenching to cope with waning demand for package shipments. The cutbacks included paring the salaries of 36,000 workers, a 20 percent pay cut for chief executive officer Fred Smith and suspending matching contributions for employees' 401(k) retirement accounts.

Through yesterday, FedEx's price-to-earnings ratio was 40.3 based on its trailing 12 months' results, compared with 24.2 for Atlanta-based UPS.

"There are certain companies that people are willing to pay up for because of their ability to execute because of their market leadership position," said Cuggino, the portfolio manager. "FedEx probably hits in a number of those areas, and as a result people are willing to pay a premium price."