Astrology: Ray Merriman - MMA Weekly Stock Report

What a wild week it was. It was the kind of week you might have expected following the new moon conjunct Uranus the prior week, March 10. In fact, the new moon oftentimes sets the tone of the following two weeks, in a lunar cycle known as the “waxing” phase of the moon. The moon “waxes,” or increases in light, for two weeks every month between the new and full moon. In astrology, it is believed that the ideas or actions which commence on a new moon continue to develop until the full moon. The new moon is the conjunction between the moon and the Sun, and the full moon is the opposition. At the full moon, the cycle reaches a climax, and those efforts started at the new moon can be manifested, or ended. In this case, the new moon of March 10 was heavily influenced by the planet Uranus, because all three (Sun, moon, and Uranus) were in the same part of the zodiacs, creating what is known as a conjunction. The nature of Uranus deals with surprises and the unexpected. When Uranus is highlighted, nothing is stable, and plans and expectations get changed abruptly. In terms of markets, it oftentimes represents a period of great volatility and large price swings in a short amount of time. We certainly witnessed that last week in stock indices around the world. Uranus can also represent breaking out to new all-time highs, or falling to multi-year lows. We also saw that last week with the rallies in Gold, Crude Oil and many foreign currencies to new all time highs, and the fall of the U.S. Dollar to new all-time lows.

The price activity in world stock indices was anything but stable or consistent last week. Some indices made their weekly lows on Monday and others fell into Friday. And on those lows, some indices made new yearly lows and others held well above their lows of January 22-23. In the Pacific Rim and Asian markets, the Australian All Ordinaries and Japanese Nikkei indexes fell to new yearly lows on Tuesday and Friday respectively. But India’s NIFTY index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index did not. The later two came close and if the trend continues, they could exceed their January lows next week. If not, it will be a case of bullish intermarket divergence for this region.

In Europe, all the major indices held above their January lows. But the German DAX and Swiss SMI came very close. The DAX fell to 6399 on Friday, which was barely above the 6384 low of January 22. The Swiss Stock Market Index fell to 7021 last Monday, which is slightly higher than the 6950 low of January 22. But England’s FTSE only fell to 5595 last week, well above the 5338 mark of January 22. And the Netherlands AEX performed similarly, falling to 425 last Monday, which is still well above its 401.45 low of January 22.

In the USA, the NASDAQ Composite fell below its low of January 23, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average held it. Last Monday, the DJIA fell to 11,731, well above the panic low of 11,634 of January 22. By Wednesday, it was nearly 600 points higher. But on Thursday and Friday, the DJIA sold off sharply again, falling below 12,000. This type of erratic behavior is typical Uranus, and this type of intermarket divergence has bullish implications if it continues to be present in the next week or so.

But as these market gyrations continue, market participants tend to feel another characteristic of Uranus: instability, insecurity, nervousness and on the verge of hysteria and panic. With Uranus, it can either suddenly reverse, or it can completely fall apart. You just never know for sure, and if you think you do, you are apt to be seriously humbled.

The erratic market experiences of the first two weeks of this month are not likely to end. Just as the market fell when the Sun translated the forthcoming Saturn-Uranus opposition from February 24 through March 10, Venus will do the same from March 15 through March 28. On the positive side, Financial Astrologers can point to the idea that Venus is at least now in Pisces, a sign in which it is exalted. They can also point to the fact that the first passage will be the opposition of Venus to Saturn, which takes place this weekend, March 15. Oftentimes when a market is falling into this aspect, it will bottom, and then stage a sudden recovery just as soon as it is over. Could the stock market have bottomed last week? According to this Financial Astrology principle, the answer is yes. But according to the concept of planetary translation, there is also a possibility the market could continue making these wild price swings right into the time that Venus finishes its conjunction to Uranus on March 28.

And it may not even end of March 28, for during that period, we see another type of translation: the Sun will translate over the recent Mars-Pluto opposition between March 21 and March 30 followed by Pluto turning retrograde on April 2. Pluto rules both debt and threat to human lives or crops. Even though news reports stated that the worst may now behind us with the sub-prime mess and the subsequent write-downs by financial institutions, there may still some more reports of losses coming up during that time.

Due to speaking commitments here in Belgrade this weekend, there will not be time to give my long-term thoughts on the markets and politic situation. This part of the column will resume when I return to the states next week.

If you are an active short-term trader, you may be interested in our Weekly or even Daily Market reports with short-term trading recommendations. It is the only way I keep in touch with traders on a daily or even weekly basis. These reports give in-depth analysis of the DJIA, S&P and NASDAQ futures, Euro currency (cash and futures), Swiss Franc, Dollar/Yen cash and Yen futures, T-Notes, Corn, Soybeans, Wheat, Gold and Silver. The daily reports cover all stock indices listed above, as well as futures in Euro, T-Notes, Soybeans, Gold and Silver. Subscription to the daily report also includes the weekly report. For more information, go to http://www.mmacycles.com/services, or call our offices at 1-248-626-3034. In the words of one of our subscribers: “I recently subscribed to your weekly report and am finding it to be excellent and a very useful companion to the MMA Cycles Report. I can't imagine now managing my investments without them.”

On April 12-13, 2008, I will be giving two special presentations in San Diego, CA. On Friday evening, April 12, I will give a lecture on "Political and Economic Cycles for 2008-2012.” On Saturday, April 13, I will give a six-hour workshop on "Introduction to Financial Astrology." This workshop will explain the methods for financial market timing that I use. It will cover the U.S. stock market, interest rates, and precious metals markets, both historically as well as the projection of future trends and reversals using this method of forecasting. For further information, contact Gayla Pierce at (619) 654-1265, or kalypso@earthlink.net, or go to website at www.sandiegoastrology.com.

The German version of “Merriman on Market Cycles: The Basics” is now in print. It is also a revision of the earlier work in English. For more information on this book, please go to our German web site at www.mma-europe.de.

Disclaimer and statement of purpose:

The purpose of this column is not to predict the future movement of various financial markets. However, that is the purpose of the MMA (Merriman Market Analyst) subscription services. This column is not a subscription service. It is a free service, except in those cases where a fee may be assessed to cover the cost of translating this column from English into a non-English language.

This weekly report is written with the intent to educate the reader on the relationship between astrological factors and collective human activities as they are happening. In this regard, this report will oftentimes report what happened in various stock and financial markets throughout the world in the past week, and discuss that movement in light of the geocosmic signatures that were in effect. It will then identify the geocosmic factors that will be in effect in the next week, or even month, or even years, and the author’s understanding of how these signatures will likely affect human activity in the times to come. The author (Merriman) will do this from a perspective of a cycle’s analyst looking at the military, political, economic, and even financial markets of the world.

It is possible that some forecasts will be made based on these factors. However, the primary goal is to both educate and alert the reader as to the psychological climate we are in, from an astrological perspective. The hope is that it will help the reader understand these psychological dynamics that underlie (or coincide with) the news events and hence financial markets of the day.

No guarantee as to the accuracy of this report is being made here. Any decisions in financial markets are solely the responsibility of the reader, and neither the author nor the publishers assume any responsibility at all for those individual decisions. Reader should understand that futures and options trading are considered high risk.

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