Astrology: Ray Merriman - MMA Weekly Stock Report

Financial Astrologers will be pleased to hear that the Mercury and Neptune retrograde principles were very much in evidence last week. As stated in last week’s column, “Compounding this frustration is the fact that both Mercury and Neptune turn retrograde on Monday, May 26. Accuracy and facts are in short supply, in favor of misleading or even intentionally deceiving projections of information. Mercury is the planet of communication. Neptune is the planet of aesthetics on the one hand, but with Mercury, trickery and misdirection on the other. Many false rumors or accusations could be intended to harm the reputation of someone in the public eye. In terms of Financial Astrology, Neptune also pertains to oil, and the run away blow-off in oil and gasoline prices may not be accurately explained in the news media.”

The major news story in the U.S.A. this past week was the release of the book “What Happened” by former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. In this surprising expose, McClellan outlines a huge political web of deception and intentionally misleading propaganda conducted by the White House (Bush, Cheney, Rove) to justify their conduct of the Iraq War and a series of other activities that essentially “duped” the U.S. public. To say this was a Mercury and Neptune retrograde theme would be right in the mark. Were reputations damaged? You bet (think Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame, not to mention George W. Bush himself or even McClellan). Was their trickery and misdirection of facts? The book is all about exactly that. In short, one couldn’t have conceived a more perfect event than the release of this book. And even the reactions to this book are filled with Mercury and Neptune retrograde rumors and misdirection.

Of course crude oil was very much in the news this week, especially given the announcement that the CFTC (Commodities Future Trading Commission) “disclosed a broad nationwide probe into potential oil-market manipulation,” according to Friday’s Wall Street journal Interestingly enough, last week’s high of $135.09 has held, right in the middle of these May 21-27 Jupiter and Neptune signatures as discussed last week.

In world stock indices, it was indeed a peculiar week, typical of Mercury retrograde. Many indices bottomed within a day of the Venus-Saturn square last Monday, including the AEX of Netherlands, DAX of Germany, SMI of Switzerland, Hang Seng of Hong Kong, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ Composite of the United States. Each of these then rallied modestly into the end of the week. In many cases, these indices traded first below their 25-day moving average, and then closed back well above that average, suggesting that a major cycle trough is in place. But other indices did not follow a similar pattern. The London FTSE, Australian All Ordinaries, and India’s NIFTY Index all continued lower into May 29 and closed the week well below their 25-day moving average. The strength was not common across the board in world indices, sort of like a Financial Astrologer might expect with Mercury retrograde – but without this astrological knowledge, this market behavior would seem to be confusing.

This week is important for the reasons mentioned last week. The signatures that started last week remain in force this week. That is, we are now in a “translation” time band of the Sun and Venus in square aspect to the approaching five-passage opposition of Saturn-Uranus, May 22 through June 13. As stated in last week’s column, “With Uranus involved, conventional solutions simply aren’t working as expected. But to try something new is likely to attract much opposition from conservative forces who only know how to do things as they have done them in the past. Anything else is just “too risky” for them. And so the “blame game” ensues, whereby one side says the radical forces are acting too impulsively and the other side says the conservative forces are acting too slowly. This criticism could be directed to the Federal Reserve Board, but the White House is not immune from criticism either. This signature can also correlate with bizarre weather and natural events, like tornadoes and earthquakes.” That was certainly true last week

Last week’s report also correctly stated, “But also on Monday, May 26, Venus forms a square to Saturn. Remember our previous Financial Astrology discussion on what happens to markets under hard Saturn aspects. Any market that is declining into this signature is a candidate to end that decline and begin a rally.” Bingo! Many of the world’s stock indices indeed made a low within one trading of May 26, and rallies promptly began.

But this week begins yet another strange transit. Heliocentric Mercury now begins its passage through the volatile sign of Sagittarius, June 1-12. Usually financial markets will commence a powerful 3-8 day rally or plunge during this time band. Add to that the observation that markets which are rising from the time Mercury turns retrograde will usually suffer a sharp collapse around the 8th calendar or trading day, and you get a picture of some fireworks likely to unfold this week. The 8th day of Mercury retrograde coincides with June 3-5. June 3 is also the new moon day – a Gemini new moon. Gemini is an erratic sign in terms of market behavior too, so it all points to a very volatile trading week coming up.

Pluto will soon retrograde back in to Sagittarius after spending the past five months tipping its toe into Capricorn. We got a preview of what the next 15 years will be like, for Pluto will fully enter Capricorn in late November 2008, and remain there through 2023. During this period we can anticipate major fundamental changes in government, central banks, and financial markets, as discussed in great detail in an article I have posted on my web site at www.mmacycles.com. But we get break, a return to the issues of the prior 13 years, when Pluto retrogrades back to Sagittarius June 14-November 26. As Astrologer Michael Lutin portrayed in his play “Plutopia” and the UAC conference of May 15-20, Pluto in Capricorn has seemed like so much “bad, bad news.” But Pluto going back to Sagittarius may find a change of tune, to “good, good news.” It may be just in time for the economic data to reflect the positive effects of the recent stimulus package. American tax payers were sent $168B in tax refunds, and they are spending it. It is very likely to show a rebound in spending, and hence economic activity. But, as I stated before, this bump up in economic activity is smoke screen. Americans are likely to spend more than the tax rebates they just received – they always spend more than they have. And that too will show up, probably just about the time that Pluto returns to Capricorn in late November 2008. Just in time for the holidays. More Pluto, more debt… until we learn to save and stop being wasteful. It is a message not just for American citizens, but also for American government leaders –Congress and the White House. More “bad, bad news” usually means more debt. But Pluto is in Capricorn. There will be a point during this transit when the lesson is learned, but probably the hard way. Nothing comes easy in Capricorn. But when lessons are learned, there is redemption.

The “SOS Global Market Cycles Report” will come out this week, June 4 (June 3 for email subscribers in English). And it will be out one day later in German to our German SOS subscribers (please go to www.mma-europe.de in to order the German version of SOS). This SOS monthly report will address the long- and intermediate-term cycles that affect all world markets, but specifically through the history of the U.S. stock market, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It is the “big picture” ahead, like where we are in terms of the 18- and 4-year cycles. It will then give an overview (and projection) of the shorter cycles (primary and its phases) of the German DAX, Netherlands AEX, the Australian All Ordinaries, Hang Seng of Hong Kong, National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India, the NASDAQ Composite Index, and the XAU Gold and Silver Mining index. The German edition will soon give analysis also of the Swiss Market Index (SMI). For ordering information, go to http://www.mmacycles.com/catalogue/services/the-sos-stock-market-cycles/.

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.”

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:

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.