As predicted, stocks in New York fell this past week. We were even fortunate enough to hit our downside targets of 12,000 on the Dow and 1320 on the S&P. The Dow closed Friday perilously close to winter support levels of 11,842, while the S&P ended the week at 1317. Much of the bearishness could be attributed to the Mars-Ketu conjunction and the Sun-Venus opposition to Pluto, along with some difficult transits to the Dow 30 natal chart, particularly Sun and Venus coming to the 8th house Mars.As transiting Mars now enters sidereal Leo and 'bears' down on Saturn, there is the likelihood for further declines in the near future. I don't think we will see them this week, however, as we may see some bargain hunting. The earlier part of the week looks more likely to decline, as Moon opposes Mars and Saturn. As the week goes on, we can expect more strength. If declines do occur early on, then the market may finish Friday around current levels, or maybe slightly above. If the declines Monday and Tuesday are more modest, then I would not be surprised to see 12,200 and 1350 on the indexes. But even in the best case scenario, this week will offer only a temporary respite from the overall downward trend. The following two weeks look more negative so we may retest winter lows then. At this point, I would say there's a 50% chance of breaking through Dow support (11,500) and SPX support (1270) in the coming weeks. Whatever lows are established then, we can look forward to a major rally in August.
The BSE also got caught up in the bearish mood and the Sensex closed down well below 15k to 14,571. This week looks better as Mercury begins to move forward again and sits atop the 11th house cusp in the Nifty Futures chart. Also the 11th house of gains in the India ETF chart is activated by the aspect from transiting Mars to the natal 11th house Sun. If the market manages to shrug off some early week negativity and avoid falling to 14k, it may make a close above 14,500-14,750.
Tokyo was down last week and opens Monday at 13,942. Like most global markets it is below its 200-day moving average, although its recent performance compares favourably with most other exchanges. It is one of the few equity markets that is currently trading above its 75-day moving average and is probably in a better position to weather further declines this year. This week more or less conforms to the pattern suggested above, with strength later in the week. In this case, the transiting Venus will aspect the natal Moon of the TSE chart and produce some significant rallies. Overall, I'm a little less optimistic for the week as a whole, as there seems to be more downward pressure early on, as transiting Mars will fall under the aspect of the natal Rahu, which combined with the malefic aspects to the transiting Moon may yield some steep losses.
As predicted, the Euro had a good week finishing above 1.56, although the intraweek action did not follow the forecast as Friday proved to be the best day. Monday and Tuesday look flat or weak as Moon enters the 6th house in the natal chart near Ketu. A drop back to 1.55 is possible here, but look for a nice rally Wednesday through Friday as transiting Venus closely aspects the natal Sun. I think there's a good chance we will finish higher for the week, possibly above 1.57.
Oil ended the week pretty much where it started, around $134, but not before it had rallied Monday above $139. I had thought a rally was likely and forecast a stabilizing of prices at some point. Friday's rally also caught me a little off guard as I had thought that most of the froth had been cleared. As the Moon transits through the 10th and 11th houses of the Futures chart (Aquarius and Pisces), there is good reason to think that Friday's rally may have some legs to it. While I had previously thought we were pretty much done with Oil in the short term, I'm less certain of that now. Mercury is moving forward now and forms an aspect with Rahu as it once again crosses the ascendant of the Futures chart. That is likely a bullish indicator that will likely manifest mostly next week (6/30). I think the bias is on the upside this week as well.
As predicted, Gold is coming off a good week as it managed to hit our target of $900. It opens trading Monday at $903. With Mars entering Leo and transiting Venus aspecting the natal Sun in the Futures chart, I think there is an upside bias this week that should push prices higher, possibly to $920. The following week also looks solidly bullish, perhaps even more so. Expect a pullback after that. July 10th, the date of the Mars-Saturn conjunction will almost certainly push gold prices down sharply.
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