Markets June 23

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The Baltic Dry Index lost 217 points in its last trading session to close at 9,221, which follows a 46 point loss on Friday. The index attempted to reverse its downtrend with modest gains on Wednesday and Thursday, but that didn't hold. The Capesize posted a sizable loss, falling 746 points (or 5.4%) to 13,112, which helped pull the Baltic Dry Index lower, while the Panamax, the benchmark index, was the only dry shipping index in positive territory in the last trading session, gaining 97 points to close at 8,796. The Supramax lost a modest 33 points to 6,206, while the Handysize continues to decline the most consistently of the group, falling 43 points in its last trading session to, closing at 2,783.

[lamborghini]

The indices are currently trading just off their lows for the day, although, only modestly lower. On a very slow news morning, the major averages opened slightly higher, with crude oil prices easing somewhat to give back its overnight gains, as Saudi Arabia announced it is increasing its output by 200K barrels per day starting in July.

The market gave back its early gains, however, and traded around the unchanged mark after about 30 minutes of trading. Again, financials were partially responsible for the move lower today.

Two stories of note in this sector have been Bloomberg's report that Citigroup (C, -3.4%) may be cutting its trading and investment-banking workforce by 10%, and CNBC reporting that loan defaults will come sooner than previously thought for Goldman Sachs (GS, -3.3%). Also dampening the market, crude oil prices rebounded after open and pushed 1.2% higher. Without much of a positive catalyst, the markets have traded slightly lower, in a tight range
throughout the morning... Dow is currently -18 points, Nasdaq -15, S&P +2.

In other news:There are a few merger and acquisition items of note.

- Farm products company Bunge (BG) is buying Corn Products (CPO) for $4.8 billion, including roughly $400 million in debt.

- Waste companies Republic Services (RSG ) and Allied Waste Industries (AW) are going to merge, with Republic paying roughly $6 billion in stock to acquire Allied.

The greenback is enjoying some buying interest this morning, rising 0.76% against a basket of world currencies. This is inducing some selling interest in precious metals, with gold falling more than 2%.

- Earnings news: Walgreen (WAG) reported an increase in quarterly profit compared to last year, but its earnings of $0.58 per share fell short of Wall Street's expectations by a penny.