Dry Bulk Shipping has a Bad Day

Dry bulk shippers had what can only be called a bad day today. Take a look at these moves:

DRYS -7.72%
OCNF -5.80%
DSX -3.20%
DAC -4.08%
EGLE -2.51%

The Baltic Dry Index (which measures shipping rates on 40 major shipping routes) was down 145 points today. The drop might indicate that the dry bulk shippers are not getting as much business as they would like. That is a bad sign for the economy.

But "chartering" activity remains fairly robust according to Cantor Fitzgerald. This is an economic positive.

Dry bulk shippers are now trading at the low end of their trading ranges, so if you own any of these stocks (as I do) you need to be careful.

On another note, the ISM numbers were better than expected, another economic positive. The economic signs are very mixed right now. Not surprisingly, the major market indexes are stuck in a trading range. The Dow and S&P have not yet broken out to the downside, but they are in the lower part of their recent ranges. Again, be careful.