Looking for new leadership or new emerging trends off this dismal market bottoming process? Well, keep an eye on this. The much derided but closely watched Baltic Dry Index ((BDI)) is very close to giving a relative strength buy signal against the S&P 500.

Reflexive action and outperformance from important market bottoms often show up in changes in the comparative relative strength relationships. Buy or sell signals in the relative strength database are indeed the ones to pay attention to as they tend to not only help in identifying superior moves but also stay in place for a long time – on average for two years.

Shipping stocks have had a solid bounce from their November lows and seem to me to be ahead of many groups as well as the major market indices in their bottoming process. Just as this group signaled caution in global trade and transport mid year of 2008, it would make sense they may be one of the first to turn up in signaling an economic recovery somewhere out through the windshield, right?

First be appraised that shippers very much remain on investors' radar screens and awareness and willingness to bet on the constituents and the sole ETF is high. The explosive moves as well an increasing volume and confirming relative strength readings tell me this. Further, 3 key facts have been converging and moving in the same upward direction, albeit in vary speeds. Shipping equity values, Forward Freight Agreements (FFAs for short, a sort of futures market on shipping rates) and the Baltic Dry Index tells me to keep a close watch.

The rise in value of commodities positions is old news by now. Most investors have been able to read the writing on the wall, even if much of it today is in hanzi (Chinese characters). But it isn't all about the commodities themselves ... a commodity isn't worth much unless it can be moved from the source to the end user, and that's why transportation costs are regaining respect as a component of commodities' value.

As raw materials and finished products take to the water in record quantities, the reasonable consequence should be a rise in shipping stock values. We believe this is one of those times investors should listen to reason.

Even if we're all a little punch drunk from the market's '08 directional changes, a close look at the tea leaves now shows a pattern of recovery. I see the market strengthening and its bounce from the bottom accelerating.

All three major indices have broken into positive trends and that's cause for a cautious hoorah. But, meaning no disrespect to the revered Dow Industrial and other widely followed indices, the real blood-and-guts action takes place in the broad market. That's why, at times like these, readers know I look to the somewhat archaic New York Stock Exchange Bullish Percent Index (from the world of Point and Figure analysis) to tell me what the average stock is getting up to.

If the thought of well-filled container ships pulling into ports around the globe doesn’t get your blood stirring, maybe it should. Continuing a pattern of growth with double-digit annual gains, container shipping may be the most stable sector in the shipping arena. And that’s something to get excited about.

Investors should not be fleeing from an anticipated phalanx of new cargo vessels once predicted to be on the verge of flooding the container segment with an embarrassment of capacity, something even we here at Delta Global have agonized over as part of our work on the Delta Global Shipping UIT. Yes, one battalion has set sail—just in time for the current cargo boom—but those vessels were written into the order book before 2003 and, since then, the building uproar has died down to a cautious murmur more in line with historical trends and the risk of container overcapacity seems to be diminishing.

Travelers to Europe this summer, myself included, are going to experience sticker shock even more severe than what we felt last year.

Last week, markets had their best week in 4 years as the recovery from the January 22^nd morning meltdown continued. Yesterday gave us an overdue down day, but here's why I believe the action we've seen recently will lead to more than just a rally. I see this timeframe as one akin to the important market low of March 12^th 2003 or, worst case, the October 10^th 2002 bottom. I believe there's an increasing chance we will add January 21^st 2008 to the list, a month from now.

Here's the key evidence I'm looking at:

Despite their strong rise over the second half of 2007, technically, some interesting things have been happening in the world of bonds: the S&P 500 is exhibiting glaring weakness against the 13 week T-bill index (a decent money market proxy) and the Shearson Lehman Aggregate bond fund (AGG).

One of the strongest groups we follow has been the shipping stocks. They have gotten beaten up enough lately that investors are asking themselves: has their run ended?

My colleague here at DGA, Chip Hanlon, who serves as lead advisor on a shipping portfolio for Claymore Securities, refreshed his research with a channel check on current voyager rates and charter demand. These are really the drivers of shipping securities stock prices, as they go hand in hand in determining the asset values of a shipping company's fleet.