John Faraclas
Once again the BDI (Baltic Dry Index) is running out steam and at best might create further shocks; Geopolitics still getting worse. John Faraclas’ daily and weekly recap:
The BDI ended the day at 1,219 points – just two higher since yesterday and 94 since last Friday the 19 of January. (from 1,125)
Still the BDI is over 1,000 points – to be more precise, it is 1,028 points below the end of December 2013 when it stood at 2,247, just over four years in which we even witnessed the BDI down to 290 points on the 10th of February 2016!!!
The Capers were up 20 points since yesterday and the BCI now stands at 1,772, which is also 279 points higher from last week’s closing (1,493)… A very volatile index and it remains to be seen what’s next. We believe after one or two months we can ascertain the situation better…
The Panamaxes were up 11 points with BPI now reads 1,492 points; on a weekly basis the BPI gained 159 points (from 1,333).
On the antipode the Supras and the Handies were both down four points with the BSI and BHSI standing at 900 and 577 respectively. On a weekly basis the Supras lost 11 points – from 911, and seven from 584 respectively…
The Wets with mixed feelings on the daily trading; the last published BDTI (Dirties) and BCTI (Cleans) stood at 683 – minus eight and 589 – plus 18 respectively. On a weekly basis both Wet indices were down; the Dirties 24 – from 707 and the Cleans 20 – from 609…
The WTI approached the US$ 65.50 and as have numerous times stressed, this is dangerous. Last week was standing at US$ 63.35… CAUTION before it is too late…
The Ships Sale and Purchase front goes through interesting times both in the second hand as well as in the newbuildings; we favour the newbuilding part on a 80 to 20 centum basis. You have nothing to worry about once you have a good broker to fix them… end of the story!
The Geopolitical situation gets worse and as said recently the War is on; the drums of War were heard a couple of years ago following the escalation in the Middle East with the axis running west to Gibraltar and to the east up to Afghanistan, north in Caucuses and south down to the Horn of Africa… In Davos’ World Economic Forum things went worse despite the medias’ dictated coverage; shame! ADD the fact that many speak more openly about the currency war… CAUTION!
The MIGRANTS remain by far the top issue…
The Wars in Syria and Iraq now continue in its third phase with more ferocity than you can imagine. A very perplexed situation… Did I hear you say Ariadne’s thread…
Turkey’s expected incursion in northern Syria might ignite unwanted situations with incalculable reprecurssions… At the same time the Turks are pestering Greece – a NATO and EU member and they wish to see bloodshed in the Balkans… Turkey’s leaders (yes in plural as both the current Erdogan regime and all opposition parties have a common national policy) and their foreign backers will soon face the boomerang phenomenon…
Greece in a mess internally as well as with its allies over the issue of the morphoma state, that is FYROM in its north frontier as well as with the Albanians. The other remains, as always, Turkey! On two occasions NATO and the EU are crossing red lines and accepting Turkey from the very beginning in NATO (66 years ago on the 18th of February 1952) was a gross mistake, even at that time! The same mistake are doing now with FYROM…
The EU is in disarray and I bet you same will be soon dissolved. It might was the GREXIT – still on the cards, which has shaken the EU and the Germans in particular, but the BREXIT stealth broke in…and now make waves and it’s the EU, that unless it changes policies (one can see a Frexit and others following suite…) that will suffer…
Italy is also in a financial collapse…
Spain continues to be haunted by the fact that mañana in the Catalonian saga might turn sour if Madrid’s arrogance continues. The EU failed until now to saw justice and respect…
Russia is being accused on all fronts from cyberwar-fare to you name it… President Putin has an agenda and proceeds accordingly…
It remains to be seen what will happen in America both internally as well as externally…Will president Trump survive from his critics? Will he embark on an economic offensive with his America First motto?
China… No, it not a secret: China goes through a difficult time and anything is possible. Having spare money doesn’t necessarily means dominance and projected dominance. Wonder how the new silk-road will develop…
Japan watches in the side-lines… and accordingly flexes its muscles…
Africa; more mess surfaces from north to south and from east to west. Africa is now the ground of the proxy war of dominance among the superpowers…
What Planet Ocean’s politicians are missing is ETHICS… They better go back to the drawing board so to speak and study Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics!!! At a time, Aristotle’s work had more than a profound and lasting influence on all subsequent Western thought about ethical matters, but now seems same evaporate…
More Geopolitical news before midnight…
l to r: Maria Mavroudi, Elpi Petraki, Angie Hartmann, Ioanna Topaloglou and Maria Angelidou – picture credits: Iris Liaskoni
On another tone, the WISTA-Hellas’ annual Vassilopitta event took place up north in Athens’ Chromata Vythou restaurant in Nea Erithea in a very jovial mood and was more than fun as we hear. As always – AND usual, a very good turnout! The lucky punter: The sovereign went to the WISTA-Hellas’ president Angie Hartmann! Will revert soon with Iris Liaskoni’s write up; excellent!
That’s all for tonight, have a nice weekend and be on guard from any eventuality emanating from Pirates and Terrorists wherever you are on Planet Ocean!
