US Stocks extended their winning streak as stocks edged 1% higher last week on reduced sovereign debt worries and some encouraging retail data. Erasing all the losses of the recent correction, S&P matched its January high and finished Friday at 1149 while the Dow played laggard closing at 10,624, some 100+ points below its previous high. Indian equities largely followed suit as the Sensex added another 1% to close at 17,166 while the Nifty finished at 5137. I had expected a little more volatility, especially early in the week on the Venus-Saturn aspect. But the gains were not entirely unexpected given the clustering of Sun and Mercury between the benefic bookends of Jupiter and Uranus which has largely propelled stocks higher off the early February bottom.
With many US indexes at or near highs for the year, can Jupiter's optimism and Uranus' restless energy push the market even higher? As the Sun and Mercury conjoin Uranus early this week, we could get a glimpse of the future trend. This triple conjunction may correspond with sudden or unforeseen developments, with technology and innovation being the short term benefactors. It may well be market positive in the (very) short run. But we must remember that once the Sun and Mercury move past Uranus it could alter sentiment since the bullish Jupiter-Uranus pairing will be de-emphasized. And as the Sun and Mercury leave Uranus behind, they may begin to activate the caution and pessimism of Saturn as they move into closer opposition aspect later in the week. Saturn is generally unkind to risk takers, the only beneficiaries of its influence would be safe havens such as the US Dollar or government bonds. Let's see how much Saturn is brought into the planetary mix this week.
