Weekly Overview: The Baltic Dry Index is up 48% over the past month; Argentina seeks IMF bailout; UK House Prices; Brazil 10-year bond tops 10%; Coal prices soaring

Baltic Dry Index

The Baltic Dry Index is a trade indicator that measures shipping prices of major raw materials and is often seen as a global growth indicator.

Over the past month, it has zoomed 48%. It is up 45% over the past year and is up 8% since the start of the year. This despite weaker US, UK and France Q1 2018 GDP growth. The Baltic Dry index generally falls in the first quarter on back of lower trading activity due to the Chinese New Year but this time it hadn’t recovered until very recently.

Here is a chart of the index over the past month,

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