Michael Burry warned last summer that American consumers would run short of cash and cut back on spending, leaving retailers with lots of excess inventory, which would lead to price cuts, slimmer profits, and stocks and cryptocurrencies tumbling. Maersk's"Shipping volumes remained weak due to continued destocking particularly in North America and Europe," said the company, which is widely seen as a bellwether for global trade.
In other words, many of the shipping giant's customers ordered fewer goods last quarter, and focused on offloading their bloated inventories instead. That trend fueled a 50% drop in sales within Maersk's ocean division to $8.7 billion, which pulled its overall revenues down 40% to $13 billion. Burry, the investor of"The Big Short" fame, appears to have seen the downturn coming. He highlighted the "