The Baltic Dry Index Drops

The Baltic Dry Index, is now down about 28% since its peak in October. This raises some important issues about global growth going forward.
The Baltic Dry Index is a number issued daily by the Baltic Exchange, a London-based organization whose members arrange for ocean transport of industrial bulk commodities from producers to end users.
Every day they survey brokers around the world to find out how much it costs to book cargoes of raw materials on a variety of shipping routes.
The answers are then reformulated as the Baltic Dry Index.
Now, why is the Baltic Dry Index considered important?
Well, first off, it's not a speculative index. In other words, no one is out there bidding up the Baltic Dry Index because they believe shipping costs will change in the future.
Instead, it tracks the actual cost of shipping raw materials by sea based on real cargo bookings and is therefore considered a pretty good indicator of global trade volumes.
For those without access to Bloomberg, the Web site Investment Tools.com has updated Baltic Dry Index data available.