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 a