US markets sank further into the quicksand of this bear market last week as stocks fell another 4% as the Dow finished at 7062 and the S&P closed at 735. Mumbai fared better than most world markets last week and managed to eke out modest gains as the Nifty closed at 2763 and the Sensex at 8891. While the Dow managed to stay above the psychologically important 7000 mark, the S&P fell unceremoniously below its November low and is now at 12-year lows. While I had expected the early week bearishness, the New Moon was not as positive as I had thought so the end of the week saw markets down again.
Now we're facing the prospect of a Venus retrograde station at 21 Pisces that is in a tense 6th house aspect with Saturn at 24 Leo. Add to that the Jupiter-Saturn 6th house aspect that will come exact March 23, and the minor aspect between Saturn and Pluto on March 11, and it's a fairly bleak picture. These are configurations involving slower moving bodies so we can't take the dates of their exactitude as necessarily indicative of the dates of their maximum impact. They have to be triggered by faster moving planets that complete the pattern. There are several possible triggers here including the Sun opposing Saturn and Mercury and Mars conjoining Neptune this week and then Mercury and Mars opposing Saturn in mid March and early April respectively. The markets may manage some gains this week due to the harmonic aspects of Sun and Jupiter and Mercury will transit through the Jupiter-ruled section of Dhanista on Monday. Overall, however, it seems like a bearish situation. From a nakshatra perspective, Mercury moves into the Saturn-ruled section of Dhanista Tuesday and Wednesday. And then Jupiter will move into the presumably bearish Ketu ruled portion of Shravana for Thursday and Friday.
This pattern has a certain ominous portent here that makes me wonder if something fairly big is right around the corner. There is a real possibility for a major move down with all these Saturn patterns coming together.
