Against a backdrop of improving economic data, stocks gamely added to their recent gains and made new highs for the year. In New York, the Dow rose 2% and equaled its highs from late August closing at 9605 while the broader S&P500 finished at 1042. In Mumbai, equities rallied more than 3% as the Sensex ended Friday's session at 16,264 while the Nifty broke above some significant resistance at 4750 closing at 4829. This bullish outcome was more or less in line with our expectations as the Sun-Venus-Jupiter configuration strongly pointed towards some gains. What was somewhat surprising was that the lion's share of the gains occurred early in the week, although solid momentum was maintained in the US for Wednesday and Thursday at the time of the tightest orb. Friday saw a modest negative day in the US, probably due to the separation of the Venus-Jupiter aspect.
In astrological terms, this week promises to be a moment of truth of sorts, as the long-awaited Saturn-Uranus opposition aspect will become exact on Tuesday. There is actually a lot more going on in the sky this week and that will only serve to ramp up the torque and increase the potential size of any moves. As a possible triggering mechanism, the Sun will conjoin Saturn on Thursday while the Moon follows suit on Friday. As an added source of planetary energy, Mercury will square Pluto late in the week and this should be seen as a burden on risk taking and optimism. Notwithstanding the fairly negative outlook here, the earlier part of the week holds the possibility for further gains in both stocks and commodities as benefic Venus will enter into alignments with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
We should also note that this Sun-Moon-Saturn-Uranus-Neptune configuration (all in the first sidereal degree of their respective signs) not only increases the chances for declines, it may also function as a cosmic signal for a trend reversal. Previous Saturn and Uranus oppositions in the current series have also coincided with significant pullbacks, although not during the immediate period around their aspect. On November 4, 2008 Saturn opposed Uranus (along with a helpful square aspect from Venus) and that marked an interim high for the US market. Stocks fell 20% in the subsequent three weeks into the November 21 lows. Similarly, Saturn again opposed Uranus on February 5, 2009 near an interim high and the market fell 25% into the lows of early March. In both instances, it was not the time around the exact aspect which took the market down, but rather the aftermath of the aspect which coincided with the decline. This 'high water' scenario is something to ponder as we confront another Saturn-Uranus opposition this week.
