While stocks rallied strongly in the second half of March, it could be a
different story as we start the month of April. This week features a
rare six-planet alignment that significantly elevates downside risk.
The Mars-Saturn conjunction was exact in longitude on Monday when stocks
surprisingly finished higher. However, some additional fallout is
possible since they will be in exact declination on Wednesday. These
are both malefic planets which do have a bearish bias in conjunction
although we should note that they do not always coincide with selling.
Whether sentiment will get bearish often depends on their situation
relative to other planets.
Their more negative sides are more likely to manifest this week since
they are aligned with the Lunar Nodes, Rahu and Ketu. Mars casts its
forward square aspect to Rahu while Saturn casts its backward square
aspect to Ketu. While this alignment is exact early this week if we use
the True Node measurement, the Mean Node is more than a degree
difference and postpones the Mars-Rahu square until Thursday, while the
Saturn-Ketu square isn't exact until April 19.
What is particularly unusual about this alignment is that is closely coincides with another conjunction, that of Jupiter and Neptune. Jupiter is a bullish planet and its conjunction with Neptune (exact on April 12) is normally a positive influence on sentiment. Since these two conjunctions are almost simultaneous, it is tempting to think they may at least partially cancel each other out.
That may well be the case and yet we have to recognize that even the bullish potential of Jupiter-Neptune could be disrupted or subverted in some way by the 120-degree/5th house aspect from Ketu, the South Lunar Node. Ketu is considered a spiritual, anti-materialist planet so that it cannot be considered a neutral influence. Therefore, the Ketu influence on Jupiter-Neptune slightly increases the probability of a negative market outcome in early April.
Overall, there is definitely some downside risk this week, even if it the outcome is less predictable than we would like. We can also see that Saturn will cast its full-strength 3rd house aspect (=60 degrees) on Mercury later in the week. This is also seen in the semi-parallel aspect in the latitudes (i.e. Mercury (0 27) is about halfway between the latitude of the Sun(0) and Saturn (0 57). This is usually bearish and perhaps more so since Mercury will be in Pisces, its sign of debilitation. So even if a major decline is averted, there is a decent chance for some selling on this Mercury-Saturn aspect on Thursday. Given all these aspects involving malefic planets, the month of April looks unlikely to be smooth sailing for financial markets.
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