Shipping Rates & The Taper

There are a multitude of indicators that have moved in mostly lock step with the FRB's asset purchases over the last four years.  One is shipping rates.  Here we compare the 3-month change in FRB total assets to the Baltic Dry Index lagged by two quarters.  The almost 30% drop in the Baltic shipping index so far this year is a negative omen for other indicators that also highly correlated to FRB asset purchases.