Stocks in New York sold off sharply Thursday and ended down by more than 2% for the week. After approaching 8600 Wednesday, the Dow closed at 8280 while the S&P ended at 896. Mumbai ended a little higher on the week, mostly on the strength of some buying late Friday in anticipation of Monday's budget announcement. The Nifty closed at 4424 while the Sensex finished the week at 14,913. I had expected more of a rise last week given the Mercury-Venus-Jupiter-Neptune alignment so this outcome was somewhat surprising. It nonetheless provides a useful clue that the strength of the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction may now be fading. I had thought we might see some weakness especially given the separation of the Mercury and Venus aspect to Jupiter after midweek and Thursday's sell off in New York coincided nicely with that phenomenon. India fared somewhat better although Thursday and much of Friday was fairly flat and uninspired. Interestingly, the rally in the last two hours of trading Friday occurred just as the Moon was moving into exact square aspect with the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction. Although the Moon was debilitated in Scorpio, aspects to benefics will often trump other considerations.
This week features a Full Moon on Tuesday at 21 Sagittarius which may incline markets towards caution especially earlier in the week. On Monday, Mars will be in alignment with the Jupiter-Neptune which may conceivably maintain the enthusiasm for stocks early but the separation of this aspect may bring out sellers in force later. The Full Moon occurs close to the Mars-Rahu aspect in the NSE chart so that increases the likelihood of a decline around that time. On a more positive note, there is a three-way Moon-Sun-Saturn aspect on Thursday that may also move the markets significantly. Since Saturn is in the Sun's sign of Leo, this Sun contact may possibly correspond with a rise. Transiting Venus will conjoin the ascendant of the S&P500 natal chart (11 Taurus) later in the week so that also bodes well for higher prices then.
