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“Every man should have a built-in automatic crap detector operating inside him. It also should have a manual drill and a crank handle in case the machine breaks down.” – Ernest Hemingway
#NumbersDay & #ChartsDay
Trading Economics is a good place to watch the Baltic Dry Index and all things trading.
The Baltic Dry Index is reported daily by the Baltic Exchange in London. The index provides a benchmark for the price of moving the major raw materials by sea. The index is a composite of three sub-indices that measure different sizes of dry bulk carriers: Capesize, which typically transport iron ore or coal cargoes of about 150,000 tonnes; Panamax, which usually carry coal or grain cargoes of about 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes; and Supramax, with a carrying capacity between 48,000 and 60,000 tonnes. The Baltic Dry Index takes into account 23 different shipping routes carrying coal, iron ore, grains and many other commodities.
Trading Economics – Baltic Exchange Dry Index
BDI Summary:
The Baltic Exchange’s dry bulk sea freight index, which tracks rates for ships carrying dry commodities, dropped 2.7% to a 3-week low of 1,540 points on Thursday, its eighth straight decline, impacted by US President Trump’s tariff announcement. The capesize index, which transports 150,000-ton cargoes like iron ore and coal, slumped 4% to its lowest since March 6 at 2,336; and the panamax index, which usually tracks vessels carrying 60,000-70,000 tons of coal or grain, extended declines for the third day, falling 2.1% to 1,464 points. Among smaller vessels, the supramax index eased 5 points to 973 points, marking the seventh session of declines. “Global shipping is expected to be stifled by the broader tariffs announced yesterday,” wrote Jefferies analysts in a note. “This new tariff will primarily impact cargoes transported by the supramax and handysize segments, and we expect that the largest affected commodities will be construction materials, ” Bimco’s Filipe Gouveia added.
BDI
Commodities – Live Quote Price Trading Data – live bid/ask quotes, last trading prices, forecasts, charts with historical time series and news. This table was last updated on Friday, April 4, 2025.
Jobs Report:
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 228,000 in March, and the unemployment rate changed
little at 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred
in health care, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing. Employment also
increased in retail trade, partially reflecting the return of workers from a strike. Federal
government employment declined.This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures
Bureau of Labor Statistics – Employment Situation Summary
labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment
survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. For more information about
the concepts and statistical methodology used in these two surveys, see the Technical Note.
Charts time! Job growth picked up in March and was much stronger than anticipated. But hiring was weaker in January and February than initially reported. #NumbersDay
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 7:48 AM
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Federal employment fell in March for the second straight month, but the declines have been quite modest so far. Down 15k over the past two months.
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 7:48 AM
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The unemployment rate edged up in March but remains low at 4.2%. And it rose for mostly “good” reasons — the labor force participation rate rose, although it’s been trending flat to down in recent months.
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 8:01 AM
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The prime-age employment-population ratio — the share of Americans ages 25-54 who are working — ticked down in March, and has been treading water at best in recent months.
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) April 4, 2025 at 8:07 AM
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Dumbass:
Another Week In Hell: Friday
President Shit’s Public Schedule:
| Friday, April 4 2025 |
| 6:45 AM Out-of-Town Pool Call Time Out-of-Town Pool |
| 7:30 PM The President attends a MAGA Inc. Candelight Dinner Mar-a-Lago Closed Press |
Graft, Corruption, …
Trump is introducing a plan to sell green cards for $5 million, while also arguing that any president can deport a green-card holder if they say something the president thinks will have “serious adverse foreign-policy consequences. $5 million is a lot to pay for the right to be… https://t.co/UEv7RxdGdu
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) April 3, 2025
☝ Show more: “to be deported at a president’s whim”
“Liberation Day” Thursday 👇
Newsmax team – and Rudy Giuliani – get to ring the opening bell on a day when Trump’s tariffs crater the stock market. pic.twitter.com/QuzQXjqyRk
— Anthony Zurcher (@awzurcher) April 3, 2025
They crashed the market with an LLM:
Let me translate for Speaker Johnson:
— Jared Ryan Sears (@JaredRyanSears) April 1, 2025
“I tried to change the rules to stop a vote from getting to the floor, which, if passed, would allow new parents to vote by proxy.
That effort blew up in my face, destroyed my agenda for the week, and exposed my ineptitude for America to…
You’re best off making Speaker Johnson explain that, as it will expose more issues with his leadership.
— Jared Ryan Sears (@JaredRyanSears) April 1, 2025
They combined these other measures into a single rule to control the voting and outcome for all of these pieces of legislation at once instead of voting on them individually.…
☝ Show more:
Then, they slipped language into that rule package to try to override the standard rules and block the proxy voting for new parents legislation. Apparently, it would be terrible to allow Congress to simply vote on issues.
Because the rule didn’t pass, they can’t push all of the other legislation through together. Instead of changing plans and opening these up to the standard individual process, which takes away Johnson’s control, he sent the House home for the week so he could pout, and more importantly to him, could deny a win for new parent proxy voting.
Remember the “ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL as it is known”?
The breakdown: Smoke & Mirrors and Gimmicks:
The new budget resolution is upside down – it hurts families the President pledged to serve and showers tax cuts on the wealthy and powerful. See my statement: https://t.co/RoejiXi90K
— Sharon Parrott (@ParrottCBPP) April 2, 2025
Senate Republicans are using smoke and mirrors to mask the devastating arithmetic of this budget plan, hiding how much the tax cuts cost and how much they plan to cut from areas like Medicaid, SNAP, and student loans. But make no mistake: this budget lays out a plan to make college more expensive and take food assistance and health coverage away from families the President campaigned on protecting, while increasing the incomes of households in the top 1 percent — those with incomes above roughly $1 million — by an average of $62,000 per year before adding more business and corporate tax breaks on top, according to a recent analysis by the Tax Policy Center.
The budget sets up a shocking $5.3 trillion in tax cuts or more, mostly occurring over nine years since most of the 2017 tax cuts do not expire until 2026. That is $1.5 trillion more than the cost of the expiring 2017 tax cuts Senate Republicans are seeking to extend. And the $5.3 trillion figure could go still higher if Republicans cut Medicaid or other supports low-income families need that are under the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee.
CBPP Statement: April 2, 2025 – New Budget Resolution Is Upside Down
Taking away health care & making it harder for people to afford food are being used to offset the exorbitantly expensive tax cuts for households with incomes > $743,000 (top 1% of HHs). Trying to be measured, I have no other word for this than obscene. pic.twitter.com/AE8NZpXYU1
— Sharon Parrott (@ParrottCBPP) March 25, 2025
Outbreak Updates:
— Outbreak Updates (@outbreakupdates) April 3, 2025
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday.
CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness.
The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said.
Taipei Times
What it is: CVB5 is a type of enterovirus, a group of viruses that can cause a variety of illnesses, including hand, foot, and mouth disease, herpangina, and aseptic meningitis.
How it spreads: Enteroviruses, including CVB5, are typically spread through fecal-oral contact and respiratory secretions.
Symptoms: Mild: Fever, sore throat, cough, mouth ulcers, and blisters on the hands and feet.
Severe: Aseptic meningitis (fever, headache, stiff neck), myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), and in some cases, neonatal infections can be fatal.
enterovirus -any of a group of RNA viruses (including those causing polio and hepatitis A) which typically occur in the gastrointestinal tract, sometimes spreading to the central nervous system or other parts of the body.
JFC
Bastard:
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