Baltic Dry Index is up slightly...but down 93% for the year.

[CoffeeCat]

I know many on here follow the Baltic Dry Index (BDI), which wiki defines as "an assessment of the price of moving the major raw materials by sea," .

The BDI is an excellent economic indicator because there is no speculation built into the Index. It's just a measure of basic raw materials that are
being shipped and a snap shot of global trade.

Recently the BDI is up slightly. I found that rather interesting. Anyone want to take a stab at why the slight improvement?

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"The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is up over 10% to 711 in the past few weeks. It doesn’t mean much, considering it’s down over 93% for the year. In fact, if you consider this move in terms of this summer’s price high of 11,793 - it’s moved barely half a percent.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be keeping an eye on the BDI.

The BDI is the price used to determine global shipping rates and prices. Like blood pressure does for humans, BDI measures the flow of goods for the economies of the world. And just like us, excessively low or high readings are bad."

more at link: http://www.investmentu.com/IUEL/2008/December/baltic-dry-index-2.html

[TomClash]

1. It's at 1035

That means price of shipping bulk cargo has risen, not necessarily that bulk cargo is moving. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that more cement is moving.