Baltic Dry Index has Worst Week Since October 2008″, you gotta think the party is just about o

08/11/2009 • Investment Watch

Remember, good news is to be trumpeted, and bad news (or anything perceived as such) is to be ignored. But lest you worry, with the index down so severely THIS week when it invariably rebounds it won’t be ignored - it will be a lead story for ‘reasons you need to buy stocks’ on certain financial entertainment TeeVee stations. •The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of shipping costs for commodities, had its worst week since October as Chinese demand for shipments of coal and iron ore slowed. The index tracking transportation costs on international trade routes today slid 135 points, or 4.6 percent, to 2,772 points, according to the Baltic Exchange. That took its weekly drop to 17 percent, the most since the end of October. •“The Chinese have backed off and it’s starting to show in the number of shipments this month,” a Cape Town-based official at Island View Shipping SA, Africa’s biggest commodities shipping line, said by phone today. “Iron ore and coal seem to be slowing down.”