Week of May 4

Review and Preview

Equity markets across the world rallied last week, with many posting new post-Venus direct highs. In Europe, the German DAX, London FTSE, and Swiss SMI indices all soared to new highs on Thursday, as most markets were closed Friday for the holiday. However, the Netherlands AEX fell just shy of its monthly high on April 17, the Venus turned direct.

In Asia and the Pacific Rim, none of the four indices we track made higher highs than those recorded around Venus direct. However, all rallied into the end of the week, so they may be poised to do so next week.

In the Americas, all the markets soared to new monthly highs last week. The most impressive were the Bovespa of Brazil and the NASDAQ Composite, which have both now exceeded their highs of this new year.

In other markets, the big news was in the agriculturals, where Corn and Soybeans staged very impressive rallies. Food prices are rising, in line with our projections made in the Forecast 2009 book. (By the way, there are less than 10 Forecast 2009 books left. The price of those not sold at Saturday’s presentation will be increased substantially as of Monday, for I am certain they will be offered at over $100 on Amazon.com immediately). Crude Oil also had a good week, reaching 53.65 on Friday, which was quite an improvement from the 43.83 low of the prior week. It looks very much like the forthcoming Jupiter-Neptune conjunction is alive and well. Both are the co-rulers of Pisces, which has dominion over Crude Oil.

Speaking of Jupiter and Neptune, one of the big news stories last week was the sudden escalation of the swine flu outbreak. Everyone wants to know if this will become a pandemic, serious enough to shut off travel and commerce. Jupiter and Neptune are principles that can coincide with hysteria and panic, and not reality. This would suggest it will not become a pandemic. However, both of these planets will also conjunct Chiron, which is believed to relate to physical or emotional danger, as in “wounded.” That implies (to me) that the “wound” is a direct result of a conflict with someone in particular. But I don’t know enough about the influence of this 50-year cyclical orbit to give an informed opinion as to its correspondence to something affecting the collective like a major flu outbreak. Chiron’s pain seems more personal.

Short-Term Geocosmics

Our primary focus is on one geocosmic signature that begins next week: Mercury retrograde. Yes, it is that time of the season again. Starting on Thursday, May 7, and lasting through May 30, this “trickster” will probably be in full form this time around. That is, I expect many decisions to be made that are questionable and will require modification or regret. I expect many bullish and bearish technical signals to be negated, and I expect a lot of “fake outs” as prices run above resistance and below support, only to reverse again. I expect market to move in a direction for 1-4 days, pause about 20 minutes, and then swing the other way for 1-4 days.

But I will be most focused on the weekend period of May 15-18, for that is when three things happen. First, that will be around the middle of the retrograde period, when sudden reversals happen. It is more important than usual this time because 2) Saturn will be turning direct that weekend (May 16) and 3) heliocentric Mercury will be entering Sagittarius (May 18-30). Last week I reported that subscriber Lindsay Holt did a study showing that Saturn stations in bear markets in equities corresponds with highs. He could be right this time. Heliocentric Mercury in Sagittarius also tends to correspond to sharply rising prices in precious metals and currencies, and declines in stock prices. Of course, the other thing we know about Mercury Rx is that whatever you think is suppose to happen, usually doesn’t. Many things go exactly the opposite of what you anticipate. So our rule still holds: take profits too soon. This will not likely be a position trader’s market for much of this month. It is more likely to be short-term and even day trading heaven.

Longer-Term Thoughts

Last week’s Short-Term Geocosmics section ended with, “Let us also not forget that the Venus-Pluto square of April 4-May 3 is still in force. As long as it is present, there remains the possibility of another large corporate bankruptcy or failure, another “takeover” by the U.S. government (or any government). Maybe it is General Motors or Chrysler that defaults”

It happened. Last week, Chrysler Corporation was forced to file for bankruptcy. But how it happened is noteworthy because it supports the forecast made in 2006 by Financial Astrology colleague Manfred Zimmel of Austria (www.amanita.at), that Capitalism is in danger of coming to an end. As stated in Friday’s Detroit Free Press, in an article by automotive columnist Tom Walsh “By forcing Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy, president Barack Obama fired an unmistakable warning shot towards General Motors Corp., its bondholders, dealers, suppliers, unions and anyone else who didn’t think he had the resolve to impose his will on domestic automobile industry… some will gasp in dismay at this telltale sign that Obama is destroying the free enterprise system (by requiring that Fiat-Chrysler build a 40-mpg car in the United States… as a) condition of Fiat boosting its stake in Chrysler from 20% to 35%.” The article goes on to say, “… despite Obama’s protestations that he has no interest in running auto companies, it’s clear that—with huge sums of federal tax money sunk into Chrysler and GM—he will be very hands on.” OK. So now we know that bondholders have no safety in realizing what is supposed to be “the safest form” of investment in one’s portfolio if there is any “rescue” monies given to that company by the US.

Today it is Chrysler and their bondholders. Tomorrow it could be GM and its bondholders. And soon after that it could be the banks. All these bondholders may be in trouble, as one of our traditionally “safest” investment vehicles is now threatened with defaults—and especially defaults the government steers them towards after getting itself (us) involved. There is an old adage that “What goes around comes around.” So what happens as the government takes over all these previously private enterprises, sinking billions of taxpayer dollars into “rescuing” them and then assuming control and forcing them into bankruptcy where all their lenders are left holding the bag? And in the process of taking over all these “badly run” companies, the government itself takes on a whole load of debt? It’s a gamble. The dice are being rolled again and once more it is “double or nothing.” If this turns out to save and create new jobs, Obama can end up as one of the greatest leaders of all time for his courage to take such a large risk and win. But if it fails, and the government itself is forced to go into bankruptcy as a result, the losses by holders of U.S. Government bonds will be much more serious than those of GM and/or Chrysler. With the Saturn-Uranus opposition moving ever closer to the T-square with Pluto in Capricorn (debt and government) in 2009-2011, it is not just the American and free enterprise system that is at risk. There is a lot more of the world at risk. And of course with risk such as this, comes opportunity—but only if the free markets and capitalism survive.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is fond of saying, “We are mortgaging our children’s future,” in concern about former President George Bush’s fiscal policies. She was right. But now it seems we are filing for a second and third mortgage on the future of our children.

Announcements

For those interested in learning or improving your understanding of astrology, please note that a fantastic conference in Astrology is going to take place August 19-24, 2009, at the luxurious Oakbrook Hills Marriot Resort, just outside of Chicago (not far from O’Hare Airport). This will be the ISAR (International Society for Astrological Research) 2009 conference, featuring over 80 professional astrologers from all over the world, including Jeff Jawer, Rick Levine, Michael Lutin, Claude Weiss, Nick Campion, Verena Bachmann, and several Financial Astrologers, including myself. There will be a whole track on Financial Astrology, and I will be giving a one-day workshop on Financial Astrology, specializing in the Gold market, on Monday, August 24. For more information, and registration, please go to www.isar2009.com. For those who golf, note that this resort has a very impressive golf course. Golf where the pros golf, and learn astrology from some of the best astrologers in the world, all at the same time!

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You can now order the Forecast 2009 book in four languages! It is available in Japanese at www.toushinippou.co.jp, in German at www.mma-europe.ch and www.mma-europe.de, and in Spanish via www.mmacycles-spanish.com. In Serbian, you can order a PDF file of the book at www.mma-balkan.com. In English, you can order directly from us, via our web site, or you can order from www.markettiming.nl in Netherlands, www.astrodata.com in Zurich, and Earlthorn Ltd in Hong Kong at www.earlthorn.com or by email at earlthorn2000@yahoo.com. In Melbourne, Australia, you may order the Forecast 2009 book at www.educatedinvestor.com.au, or by email at investorbooks@iprimus.com. We are now down to our last 30 books in English.

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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?ïs 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?ïs 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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