Japanese stock crashette; global markets wobble

(26 May 2013)  After a parabolic rally that started in early 2013, Japanese stocks fell back down to earth with a thud last week.   Weaker than expected industrial production data out of China was the proximate cause of the sell-off that shaved more than 7% off the Nikkei on Thursday.   Anxiety over a possible early exit from QE3 by the Fed did not help matters either as the Nikkei topped out at 16,000 early on Thursday before plunging over 1000 points in a few hours.  Friday's session was also volatile as it declined further to 14,000 before recovering by the close ending the week at 14,642. 

This mini-crash nudged many global markets out of their recent complacency as the Dow finally put in a losing week after four straight weeks of gains closing at 15,303.  In India, the Sensex fell 3% closing at 19,704.  I thought that markets would be generally bullish for the first half of the week as the Taurus influence would predominate.  This was actually largely the case as most markets rose into Wednesday.  As expected, the entry of malefic Mars into Taurus on Thursday was negative so much of the decline was clustered at the end of the week.

I have previously commented on the meteoric rally in the Japanese stock market.  In my weekly post for April 22, I noted that a correction would be upcoming fairly soon, perhaps starting in June once Jupiter left the friendly confines of Taurus and entered the sign of Gemini.  To be sure, last week's major decline was a little ahead of schedule since Jupiter is now in the last two degrees of Taurus. Not enough for an exact hit, but perhaps close enough to be called "interesting". 

From the transit chart for last Thursday, we can see a few telling patterns that may have strongly indicated an imminent decline in the market.  Although not yet in Gemini, Jupiter was nonetheless under the influence of malefic Ketu within just a four degree orb.   Ketu aspects are often associated with disruption of the status quo (the rally, in this case).  The position of the transiting nodes is also worth noting.  Transiting Ketu (22 Aries) is within four degrees of natal Mars and should be seen as broadly coincidental with difficulty and obstacles.  This conjunction will be in effect for several more weeks so it will be interesting to see how that unfolds.  We can also see that the nodal placement at 22 degrees of Aries/Libra does exactly align with natal Mercury at 22 Taurus.  This is not a standard full-strength Vedic (120 degree) aspect but it is an exact degreewise alignment nonetheless and may have played a role  in the sudden move last week.  The fact that transiting Mercury and Venus were both conjunct natal Mercury may have intensified the resonance of this Rahu/Ketu alignment with Mercury. 

More broadly, we can see that the Uranus-Pluto square aspect was central to this chart since Pluto was conjunct the Moon at 17 Sagittarius while Uranus was square this point.  This Uranus-Pluto square is the dominant feature in the sky at the moment.  While it is a slow moving aspect that will last several years due to retrogradation -- it will make its final exact aspect in 2015 -- it was nonetheless exact last week.  And Pluto was just a few arc minutes away from a precise conjunction with the natal Moon in the TSE horoscope.  Pluto is typically a more malefic influence, especially if it is involved with another planet in hard aspect (45/90/180) as is the case here with Uranus.

Tertiary progressions provide another dimension of explanation to last week's decline.  Progressions are a standard technique in Western astrology that are often useful for identifying larger time windows when events are more likely to occur.  The planetary positions in the tertiary progressed chart are usually slower than most transits.  The progressed chart for the mini-crash shows that there was an ominous conjunction of Mars and Pluto -- two very malefic planets.  Pluto barely moves at all when progressed, while Mars moves about one degree every two months of clock time.  This conjunction was quite close last week and will actually tighten over the coming weeks.  This doesn't necessarily mean that Japanese stocks will fall further, but it does increase the probability of more trouble ahead.  

We can also see that Mercury was in a close conjunction with Ketu.  This is another classic negative pairing.  Tertiary progressed Ketu only moves a few minutes a month, while Mercury usually travels about one degree for every month of clock time.   Like the Mars-Pluto conjunction, this one will also get closer in the coming weeks.  Again, it doesn't mean that more downside is certain since progressions work according to more approximate parameters.  But it should give bullish investors some pause since these troublesome planetary influences are probably not going to suddenly disappear.  

The prevailing market opinion is that the correction was to be expected given the huge rally since the beginning of the year.   Most observers do not expect the rally in Japanese stocks to end any time soon.   Some analysts are saying that more "volatility" is possible in the near future.  Volatility is a euphemism for declines, of course, and I would tend to agree with that view in the near term.  In other words, I don't think this correction is done.  It will be interesting to see what happens after Jupiter enters Gemini on the 30th and comes under continued influence by natal Ketu in early June.

This week offers up not one but two conjunctions involving bullish Jupiter.  And both conjunctions involve bullish planets -- Mercury and Venus.  Moreover, all three planets are slated to change signs as they all leave Taurus and enter Gemini during the week.  All in all, these are some pretty positive factors that argues fairly strongly for gains this week.  That said, it is worth noting that these bullish conjunctions can sometimes mark sudden shifts in sentiment as soon as they become exact, as when a balloon bursts.  The entry of Jupiter into Gemini on Thursday also looks particularly favourable for most asset classes.  But one will have to pay close attention to the immediate aftermath of these sign changes and culminated aspects.  The ongoing tight Uranus-Pluto square aspect is an additional source of potential difficulty in the days and weeks to come.  This aspect formed an exact aspect on May 21st, just a day or two before the Bernanke-led global pullback and Japanese mini-crash.

Gold slumps on rising Dollar: the astrology behind last week's decline

Gold came under increased selling pressure last week on renewed strength in the US Dollar and more signs of slowing inflation.   Friday saw gold fall sharply and at one point it was down 4% and trading at $1420 before partially recovering to $1450 by the end of day.   In recent weeks gold has rebounded somewhat from its April plunge low of $1320 but Friday's sell-off may have marked a return to bearish sentiment in precious metals. 

Astrology promises a unique understanding of price fluctuations of financial assets.  While consistent and infallible predictions are not yet possible with any method or technique, there are nonetheless some situations in which correct predictions are more likely.  The trick is to be able to note ahead of time when such high probability predictive scenarios are at hand in order to differentiate them from the random noise of many common, unremarkable and ultimately unknowable planetary alignments.   Friday's gold decline was one such high probability predictive scenario.

In the first instance, it is usually helpful to look at the transit picture at any given time.   Transits are a snapshot of planetary positions and are the baseline from which forecasts can be made.  As I noted last week, there was a somewhat greater chance of volatility in stocks and most asset classes on Friday due to the solar eclipse.  This was perhaps more likely to pertain to gold specifically because gold is traditionally symbolized by the Sun, along with Venus and Jupiter.  Since this was a solar eclipse, the Sun was being eclipsed by the Moon and therefore is was arguably weaker according to traditional astrological notions of planetary weakness. 

 
In addition, we can see that the Sun suffered from a second weakness.  The Sun was in the sign of sidereal Aries at the time, which is said to be ruled by the planet Mars.  But Mars was closely conjunct malefic Ketu (the South Lunar Node) and thus was unable to convey its positive energy to the Sun by normal means.  If Mars had been conjunct a benefic planet like Venus or Jupiter, then that positive energy would have been more available to flow back to the Sun.  This would have been a less damaging situation for the Sun and hence gold might not have declined and indeed it might have even risen. 

But transits offer only one dimension of the multi-dimensional planetary reality.  The other dimension involves relevant natal charts which reflect something of gold's inherent nature.  As I have discussed previously in this space, the horoscope of the moment of the first public set price for gold is a useful chart that can describe and predict price moves.  This first price fix happened in London in September 1919 and continues to be relevant today.  A quick look at this chart shows why gold was more likely to suffer late last week.  At that time, transiting Mars (20 Aries) formed an near-exact square aspect to natal Mars (20 Cancer).  This is one of a fairly short list of high probability aspects that are correlated with losses and declines in financial astrology.  Mars is considered a negative planetary energy and when it forms a hard aspect (45/90/180 degrees) with another planet but especially another malefic (like itself), then a decline becomes more likely.  Of course other factors have to be integrated into the total picture, but since there were no other close or powerful planetary aspects in force at the same time, the Mars-to-Mars aspect appeared to carry the day. 





  But is gold likely to decline further in the wake of this latest weakness?  While the longer term outlook for gold still looks difficult to me, there is a reasonable case to be made for gold rebounding a bit further once the Sun enters sidereal Taurus on May 15.  Instead of transiting through a sign ruled by malefic Mars, the Sun will be in a sign ruled by Venus.  This is usually a more friendly set-up for gold.  As an added plus, Venus is quite strong here since it is also in Taurus now with benefic Jupiter.  All of these planets clustered together in Taurus ought to provide some support for gold and could well help it recover further.  But that is only one layer of the planetary matrix.  According to the gold 1919 chart, Saturn continues to back into the Ascendant.  As a malefic influence, Saturn will tend to depress sentiment on gold for the next couple of months at least.  Just how these two opposing influences reconcile is somewhat uncertain.  I would tend to think that the bullish Taurus effect ought to play out a bit before Saturn has a chance to dampen the enthusiasm.

Stocks generally rose last week as the Jupiter influence on the eclipse and other short term aspects kept the broad optimism about central bank bond buying in place.  As expected, stocks rose into the eclipse and then suffered some volatility right around the eclipse on Thursday or Friday.  This week could see more gains as the Sun's entry into Taurus looks bullish (pun intended).  That said, there are a couple of risk factors here that are worthy of mention, both of which involve Mars.  Monday could see some fallout from the Mars-Ketu conjunction.  I tend to think it won't be significant, however.  More problematic is the late week conjunction of Mars with the eclipse point at 25 Aries.  This has the potential for a sudden and large decline, especially on Friday when the Moon is aligned with Mars.