Review and Preview

The post Jupiter-Neptune conjunction euphoria continues as many world equity indices accelerated last week to new highs for this year. The cluster of several Venus signatures present July 21-28 only caused the market’s “bullet train” to pause for a brief rest after last Monday. By Thursday, it was all gassed up and off to the next leg of its race to the crest of the 4-year cycle.

This rally since the second passage (of three) of the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction on July 10 has been impressive. In almost all indices, prices have risen at least 14% in the past two-three weeks. In fact, if we take the starting point as the Venus retrograde low of March 6, the rally in world equity prices have been extremely impressive. All we have to do next week is to make yet another new high for this year and we will qualify our minimum time objective for a 4-year cycle crest. As stated in this year’s Forecast for 2009 book, written in November 2008, “…a 4- and 6-year cycle low may be completed anytime before May 2009… Once that low is in, look for a very healthy 5-16 month rally for the crest of the new 4- and 6-year cycle.” What constitutes a healthy rally to the crest of a 4-year cycle? Well, as documented in “The Ultimate Book on Stock Market Timing, Volume 1: Cycles and Patterns in the Indexes,” of the 28 four-year cycles in the DJIA since 1893, there were only 5 cases where the rally failed to gain of at least 50%. Last Thursday’s high of 9246 now represents an appreciation of 42.9% from the 6470 low of March 6. We are getting close. But if we examine other indexes of the world, we will see many have already satisfied this condition. And Monday, August 3, will start the fifth month, which begins the minimum time band for the 4-year cycle crest to be met as well.

Then NASDAQ Composite has already made the minimum price criteria we have established for the 4-year cycle in stocks. From its low of 1265 on March 9 to its 2009 high so far last Thursday, it has appreciated 58.8%. Brazil’s Bovespa has appreciated 54.2% in the same time frame. But the stellar performer in the America’s has been Argentina’s Merval Index, which has soared over 90% from a low of 914 on March 3 to Friday’s high of 1738.

In Europe, the German DAX has been the best performer, rising from a 4-year cycle low of 3558 on March 9 to a high of 5396 last Thursday, for a gain of 51.6%. The Netherlands AEX and the Swiss SMI indices are closer to the DJIA, up 45.8% and 41.1% respectively from their 4-year cycle troughs of March 9. Lagging far behind, however, is London’s FTSE index. Its new multi-month high of 4646 last Thursday represents an increase of only 34.2% from its low of March 9.

Asia and the Pacific Rim have mixed results. Australia’s All Ordinaries has been the laggard, posting gains of only 35.6% from its 3090 low of March 10 to Friday’s high of 4251. Japan’s Nikkei has now risen from a low of 7021 on March 10 to a high of 10,359 on Friday of last week, for a gain of 47.5%. It is nearly to our minimum criterion of 50%. But the Hang Seng of Hong Kong and Nifty Index of India have been outstanding, posting gains of 82.5% and 83.9% respectively from their lows of March 6-9 to their highs of last week. In the case of the NIFTY, last week’s high wasn’t even a new multi-month high. It is still slightly below its high of June 12.

Even though the equity markets failed to reverse significantly under onslaught of Venus signature early last week, several other markets did. Gold and Silver, for instance, fell sharply from their highs of last Monday through Wednesday’s low. Gold fell from 960 to 925, and Silver from 1409 to 1316. The Euro currency and Swiss Franc also fell sharply over the same two days. For that matter, so did Crude Oil which dropped from 68.99 on Monday to 62.76 on Thursday. But by Thursday, each of these commenced another sharp rally, albeit not to new weekly highs.
Short-Term Geocosmics

What does this rally in world equity markets tell us from the perspective of Financial Astrology? It suggests that the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Aquarius (May-December 2009), in mutual reception to Uranus in Pisces (January 2009-January 2010), has been a correlate of great hope regarding the economic and banking crisis that struck the world just prior to the Saturn-Uranus opposition (November 2008-July 2010). Two of the three passes of the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction have now been completed as of July 10, and the market is still rising. That may be due to the fact that first Venus, then the Sun and Mars, are still making a “translation” to the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction. Venus did so last week, while both the Sun and Mars will do so August 13-17. After that, we head back into the minefield of the Saturn-Uranus opposition, which happens five times between November 4, 2008 and July 26, 2010. The third of the five passages of this 45-year cycle will unfold on September 15, with the new moon hitting that opposition just three days later. The first two passages (November 4, 20087 and February 5, 2009) coincided with what cycles’ analysts would label a “major cycle crest.” They were highs from which severe 3-4 week declines followed, and the DJIA dropped approximately 2000 points both times.

Longer-Term Thoughts

You read it here first. You may have even read in the “Forecast 2008” book, published in late 2007. The Federal Reserve Board and its Chairman Ben Bernanke are in trouble.

Just a few weeks ago, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas sponsored House Resolution 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, a bill designed to audit – and with the purpose of eliminating — the FRB. It was passed in June. Shortly thereafter, Bernanke was called to testify before Congress on his role in the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the possible forced sell out of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America. He was treated very harshly by Congress, and some also wanted to know what happened to trillions of dollars the Fed spent during that crisis, even as President Obama was – and apparently still is – seeking to increase the powers of the FRB. Bernanke has recently stated that “I don’t think American people want Congress running monetary policy.” True enough, probably. But then this week, Rasmussen Reports conducted a national survey that finds “…. 75% of Americans favor auditing the Federal Reserve and making the results available to the public. Just nine percent (9%) of adults think that’s bad idea and oppose it.”

But… Pluto is on the Federal Reserve Board’s Sun opposite its natal Pluto (December 23, 1913, 6:02 PM, Washington D.C., according to the New York Times the next day). Pluto rules debt and taxes, and the threat of termination of an effort. It also rules audits, where the investigating agency wants to know how the funds were spent. The only way out is to be completely open and transparent, something that is not the nature of an entity whose natal Moon is in Scorpio, and natal Sun in hard aspect to Pluto, such as the FRB. To the contrary, the Federal Reserve Board is known for its secrecy and its independence, and both are seriously being questioned now.

Will the FRB and Bernanke survive this transit? I am not optimistic, given that Saturn and Uranus will next form a grand square to the FRB Sun-Pluto opposition, late 2009 through much of 2010. And Bernanke’s term comes up for reappointment in January 2010. Clients ask me, “What could cause another financial and market plunge in the near future?” This is one very possible cause. Imagine a Federal Reserve Board with expanded powers. And then imagine the current Chair of the Federal Reserve Board not being reappointed by the President, and in his place someone who has close ties to the White House and/or Congress is appointed. How do you think the global markets would react? I think you would see something akin to huge sucking sound occurring. That would be sound of the Dollar as it plummets on world markets against other currencies, and as the foreign investors (and nations) suddenly try to move their investments in the U.S. to newly defined “safe havens.” November 2009 through August 2010 – astrologically it has the potential to be a redefining period in the direction of the U.S, economy. It can be the end to this terrible recession, or it can be the start of the next big leg down, depending on what decisions our leaders make. And the Federal Reserve Board may be the key to all of it. After all, he who controls the money has the real power.