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#5 Baltic Dry Index. I recently learned of this as being THE big indicater as it is the level of raw goods purchased for manufacture/production and is a huge indicater/forecast of perhaps 6 - 9 months out.
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This description is mostly incorrect. The Baltic Dry Index is the cost of
shipping bulk dry goods. The amount of shipping available is relatively inflexible. So, when demand for shipping varies a little bit, the cost of shipping can vary dramatically. This has happened repeatedly in the past. You need to look at some other number to determine the actual volume of goods shipped.
The Baltic Dry Index has no bearing on the cost of the goods being shipped (other than the amount of markup needed to cover shipping costs). So, there's nothing you can say about the value of a pile of steel based on the Baltic Dry Index.