Dante would be proud; the Baltic Dry Shipping Index has now plunged through at least eight levels of hell on its way to record lows as it drops to 666 today. This is the lowest since Feb 2012's Chinese New Year lows and is a stunning 55 percentage points lower than the normal seasonal shift in the global aggregate trade indicator (and down 69% from its Oct 2011 swing high). Whether its over-supply, under-demand, or too many Chinese New Years, it is unarguably the next level of hell for the global economy - that will surely bring all the bottom-callers out as this time is different.
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and if you thought it was just the Baltic Dry... here are the Cape, Banamex, and Supramax Indices... noneof which receovered at all from the 2008/9 crush in global trade...
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Source: DryShips [6]