Stocks lost ground around the world last week as prospects for recovery suffered on poor US housing data. In New York, the Dow closed down 3% at 8539 while the S&P finished at 921. Indian stocks also declined almost 5% as the Sensex ended Friday's trading at 14,521 and the Nifty at 4313. As if to underline the importance of Jupiter and the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in this spring rally, stocks moved lower Monday the same day that Jupiter turned retrograde. As I noted last week, these retrograde stations can often coincide with market reversals and this one was a textbook case. I had thought we might see more upside midweek on the Sun-Jupiter aspect, but that was not enough to move markets higher. Mumbai only saw a gain Tuesday as well as a nice move higher right at the close Friday. The Venus-Mars conjunction did not coincide with much in the way of a correction, and indeed US stocks enjoyed a late week bounce.
This week has a good chance to start higher as Venus passes Mars on Monday. Monday will also feature the Gemini New Moon in close opposition to Pluto, so this may increase the size of the price move. The Pluto opposition often creates problems for government and authority, although this needn't have any immediate negative market consequences. As the Mercury square with Saturn tightens into a conjunction by Friday, the market may well turn bearish again and make the week negative overall. It will be interesting to watch how Jupiter's new retrograde condition will affect aspects involving faster moving planets. While still benefic and supportive of higher prices, we may find that an aspect with Jupiter doesn't produce the same kind of lift that we've seen in the past two to three months. Overall, I don't think this will be a huge pullback, especially in the US market, and next week we could well see more strength. Watch for gold to move higher early in the week but the rally should fade fairly quickly.
