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 The Dow Jones Industrial Average retreated on Friday as investors followed the latest news about a potential government shutdown and ended what has been a tough month for stocks. – Alex Harring, Sarah Min, and Pia Singh, “S&P 500 and Nasdaq Wrap Worst Month in 2023,” www.cnbc.com, September 29, 2023.

This was the week that Venus made its third and final square to Uranus (Friday, September 29). One of the outcomes of a hard aspect between Venus and Uranus can be either a breakout of multi-month support/resistance, or a reversal. In this passage, it is coinciding with breakouts so far. Last week witnessed several global stock indices break one support after another. The same happened with Gold, which fell to a low of 1862.30 on Friday, its lowest price since early March.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING OCTOBER 2, 2023 ©

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 On Wednesday, Federal Reserve officials surprised markets by signaling interest rates won’t fall as much as previously planned. The tweak might be more important than it looks. In their projections and commentary, some officials hint that rates might be higher not just for longer, but forever. – Greg Ip, “Higher Rates Not Just for Longer – Maybe Forever,” Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2023.

The United Auto Workers is expanding strikes to 38 parts and distribution locations across 20 states, targeting General Motors and Stellantis, UAW President Shawn Fain said Friday morning. The union will not initiate additional strikes at Ford Motor, as the company has proven it’s “serious about reaching a deal,” Fain said. – Michael Wayland, “UAW Targets 38 Facilities at GM and Stellantis for Expanded Strikes,” www.cnbc.com, September 22, 2023.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 25, 2023 ©

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 The United Auto Workers officially went on strike against the “Big Three” Detroit automakers early Friday, potentially imperiling an already-fragile U.S. economy. An extended work stoppage risks causing billions in damage to the economy…. Still, the strikes are limited in scope so far as the UAW seeks to preserve its $825 million strike fund, which would support a walkout for about 11 weeks by the 146,000 union members. – Megan Henney, “UAW strike Could Slam the US Economy,” www.foxbusiness.com, September 15, 2023.

“It’s the one constant in life. If you build something worth having, someone’s going to try to take it.” ­– Kevin Costner as John Dutton, in “Yellowstone,” Series 3, Paramount Pictures.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 18, 2023 ©

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 Revisions to economic data are widespread and normal. But occasionally the revisions are so big that they upend our shared understanding of what’s going on. The problem isn’t new, but it’s getting worse. Timely data is typically based on surveys, and even companies can’t be bothered to fill in surveys any more. Early reporting of figures that are later revised away can send investors in entirely the wrong direction. It can embed an understanding of the economy that takes a long time to be corrected. At worst it can lead to the misallocation of capital and influence government policy or interest rates. – James Mackintosh, “Economic Data Lead Markets and Governments Astray,” Wall Street Journal, September 8, 2023.

North Korea-linked hackers have stolen hundreds of millions of crypto to fund the regime’s nuclear weapons programs, research shows. “In recent years, there has been a marked rise in the size and scale of cyber-attacks against cryptocurrency-related businesses by North Korea,” said TRM Labs in a June discussion with North Korea experts. – Sheila Chiang, “North Korean Hackers Have Allegedly Stolen Hundreds of Millions in Crypto to Fund Nuclear Programs,” www.cnbc.com, September 6, 2023.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 11, 2023 ©

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NOTE: U.S. markets are closed this Monday, September 4, in observance of the Labor Day holiday.

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 Hiring cooled this summer and unemployment rose in August, signs the labor market is moderating in the face of high interest rates. U.S. employers added 187,000 jobs last month, while payrolls in June and July were revised down a combined 110,000. The monthly gain in August was well less than the average pace over the prior year, and far below the roughly 400,000 average monthly gain in 2022. The unemployment rate was 3.8% last month, up from 3.5% in July. Gwynn Guilford, ”Job Gains Eased in Summer Months, Unemployment Increased in August,” Wall Street Journal, September 1, 2023.

Imagine the planets as ships at sea. Imagine their movement through the heavens, as seen from earth (geocentric), as waves on the sea. There are eight planets in our solar system, as seen from Earth (not counting the Earth). At various times, each planet will appear to be going backwards through the heavens, which is known as its retrograde cycle. Six of the planets go retrograde at least once during the year. Venus and Mars will do so once every 19 or 26 months, respectively, while Mercury will go retrograde every 88 days or 3-4 times/year. It is not uncommon to see 1-3 planets retrograde at one time. Four is not too unusual. Five or more is considered a lot. Between August 28 through September 3, six planets will be retrograde. On September 3, Venus will turn direct, dropping it back to five. However, the next day, September 4, Jupiter will turn retrograde, making it six planets retrograde once again until September 15, when Mercury turns direct.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 4, 2023 ©

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 “Although inflation has moved down from its peak—a welcome development—it remains too high,” Mr. Powell said. He added that the central bank will keep monetary policy at its current “restrictive level” until there is more evidence that inflation is truly whipped. – Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, “Jerome Powell Stays On His Anti-Inflation Course,” Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2023.

The BRICS group invited another six countries to join their photo opportunities. Brazil’s President Lula noted this took the group to 37% of global GDP. That ignores the obvious internal imbalance. It is like my claiming that my farm (plus Australia) is the second-largest lamb producer in the world. With economic nationalism rising as structural change sweeps the global economy, collaboration will be hard to achieve. – Dr. Paul Donovan, “Powell Speaks. Do We Really Care?” UBS morning audio comment, August 25, 2023.

It was an eventful week on many fronts. The Fed meetings at Jackson Hole, the BRICS meeting in South Africa, the “accidental plane crash” that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, the indictment of Donald Trump and 19 others on Election Interference in Georgia, etc. And yet, the markets held their ground. The ground is shaky and certainly not yet secure. But that’s about par for the course with both Mercury and Uranus turning retrograde, while Venus is poised to end its 6 weeks of retrogradation on September 3. As financial astrologers, we look at the markets’ behavior last week and think: “Is it going to reverse or break down?”

Mars was also in opposition to Neptune last week, so you’ll have to excuse us if we see world leaders and current events exhibiting characteristics that seem passive-aggressive with a lot of bark but no bite. The same behavior seemed present in financial markets, which seemed on the brink of collapsing in many cases but then gingerly tried to mount a rebound that no one really trusted.

In the U.S., for instance, stock indices were mostly higher into mid-week when Mercury turned retrograde. It looked like they had bottomed the week before. But this is where the Trickster is at its best, getting you to think the worst is over – the bottom is in – when really it’s not quite so clear, especially when Mars is also in opposition to Neptune. They all turned south after Wednesday, with the DJIA making a new 6-week low on Friday, but the S&P and NASDAQ were still well above their lows of the prior week. And then all the indices rallied to close nicely higher on Friday. We call that a case of intermarket bullish divergence. The fact that it is happening right in the middle of four planets changing directions (Mercury, Uranus, Venus, and Jupiter) between August 23 and September 4 makes these cases of bullish or bearish divergence even more important as a signal that a reversal is taking place or about to do so. This is one of the core principles of financial astrology and how it can be used as a valuable market timing tool.

Bitcoin was another example of how astrology worked well last week. As Mercury turned retrograde on Wednesday, August 23, Bitcoin made its weekly high and low that very day. Mercury retrograde is known as a “Trickster” in financial astrology because it is often present when the market gives false buy and sell signals, or “fake outs.” It made the low first and then the high, so one would think that was a sign the market was going higher. Except it didn’t. It just flatlined the rest of the week between Wednesday’s high and low, causing traders to wonder: is this going up or down?  Like the roadrunner: Is it going this way or that way?

Mixed signals and divergence were also noted in precious metals. Silver exploded higher last week, but Gold took out its prior week’s low (Silver did not), then tried to rally but was not as explosive as Silver. Usually, if the metals are going to be bullish, Gold is the leader, not Silver. But then again, Mercury is retrograde, so conventional theories are not always followed.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING AUGUST 28, 2023 ©

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 It was only a year ago that Beijing and Moscow touted a new world order, but things appear to be unraveling fast for their economies. While the news has been grim, the countries are responding to their economic problems in different ways. On Tuesday, China slashed a range of key interest rates to shore up its economy, aiming to reignite growth and investment. On the other hand, Russia’s central bank hiked rates by 3.5 percentage points at an emergency gathering, bringing its key rate to a total of 12%, fearing inflationary pressures that could ripple through its economy. – “New World Failure,” Seeking Alpha, August 16, 2023.

Thanks to a combination of high inflation, rising interest rates, and unrelenting growth in the national debt, interest payments are expected to triple from nearly $475 billion in fiscal year 2022 to a stunning $1.4 trillion in 2032. – Megan Henney, “The US is Paying a Record Amount of Interest on its National Debt,” www.foxbusiness.com/, August 18, 2023.

Wouldn’t you know it? I get sick and financial markets develop a hemorrhoid (a real pain in the arse). I might get better before the market does. Or maybe we both end our misery about the same time that four planets change their directions (stations) over these next two weeks. On the positive side, I had a delicious meal of gnocchi last night. I must be getting better if I am eating potatoes.

It was the same story for stock indices throughout the world. After making primary or yearly highs within a week of Venus turning retrograde on July 22, nearly all were falling precipitously to new multi-week, even yearly lows, by the end of last week. And there are still two more weeks to go before Venus turns direct on September 3.

It was not just stock indices that cratered last week. Bitcoin simply crumbled – broke support – as the Sun squared Uranus mid-week. Uranus is noted for breakouts of support or resistance. Last week, support broke. By Friday, BTC was down to 25,600, almost back to the 24,750 low of June 15, and a netherworld lower than its yearly high of 31,824 made on July 13. That was just one week before the goddess of love and financial security decided it was time to end her journey as the brightest light in the evening skies and head for her new reign as the brightest star in the pre-morning sky, a reign that officially started with last week’s conjunction to the Sun, but won’t be too apparent to the eye for a few more days. Maybe she will herald a return to the glory days that preceded the start of her retrograde cycle.

Gold and Silver got tarnished, too, as Venus began her backward motion in Leo, a sign often associated with Gold and royalty. Both metals had recently peaked on July 20 as the station began. By late last week, Gold had been down almost every day since Venus turned retrograde.

SHORT-TERM GEOCOSMICS AND LONGER-TERM THOUGHTS

 The summer bond-market rout is delivering a windfall to savers whose rush into higher-yielding investment products is reshaping the U.S. financial system. Americans poured $36 billion into money-market funds this week, taking advantage of yields that have soared past 5%—a figure that only recently seemed like a dream for consumers and businesses shopping for a place to park their cash. – Gunjan Banerji, “Rising Yields Fatten Americans’ Pocketbooks,” Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2023.

The reaction among Mr. Trump’s haters is to wonder why his supporters don’t hate him too. Mostly they tell themselves that his voters are stupid. Never does their own role in stoking Mr. Trump’s popularity occur to them. – William McGurn, “Donald Trump’s Last Hurrah,” Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2023.

Ah! Finally! The market cycles are starting to make sense under this Venus retrograde, a cycle of indecision, changing of mind, and the urge to return anything recently purchased.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING AUGUST 21, 2023 ©

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The right brain is more visual and intuitive. www.healthline.com.

Well, we know where we’re going
But we don’t know where we’ve been

• Talking Heads and David Byrne, “Road to Nowhere,” June 10, 1985.

 It’s going to be a short column this week because I’m sick. It’s also going to be a column that’s not so much about financial markets this week because…. I’m sick.

 Now you are probably wondering: why am I sick? Maybe you are not wondering, but I am going to answer as if you were right here and asking that question. But you probably wouldn’t be right here asking that question because… I’m sick.

 But let’s imagine you are here and asking that question. Well, let me imagine that you are here asking that question because, after all, I have Neptune rising in my chart, and that can be very imaginative and intuitive. Now I’ve written before about my intuition, being that I am about as psychic as a potato. Potatoes make me sick – unless they are chips or gnocchi served in a fine-dining restaurant. But as I am in Germany -– a land where everything is made with potatoes – you may use your intuition and ability to connect the dots. You might begin to see why I am sick.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING AUGUST 14, 2023 ©

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 Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating weeks after President Biden and congressional Republicans came to the brink of a historic default, warning about the growing debt burden and political dysfunction in Washington. Fitch said Tuesday that the downgrade reflects an “erosion of governance” in the U.S. relative to other top-tier economies over the last two decades. Biden administration officials criticized Fitch’s decision, blaming governance problems on the Trump administration and arguing that the U.S. was not at risk of missing its debt payments. – Matt Grossman and Andrew Duehren, “Fitch Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating,” Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2023.

One of the credit rating agencies (it does not matter which) downgraded the US government from something (it does not matter what) to something else. Markets care about the fiscal position of the US and the repeated farce of the debt ceiling debacle. They do not care what credit rating agencies think about the matter. Dr. Paul Donovan, “Things Which Do Not Matter,” UBS Morning Audio Comment, August 2, 2023.

Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 187,000 for the month, slightly below the Dow Jones estimate for 200,000. Though the headline number was a miss, it actually represented a modest gain from the downwardly revised 185,000 for June. The unemployment rate was 3.5%, against a consensus estimate that the jobless level would hold steady at 3.6%. The rate is just above the lowest level since late 1969. – Jeff Cox, “The U.S. Economy Added 187,000 Jobs in July, Fewer than Expected,” www.cnbc.com, August 4, 2023.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING AUGUST 7, 2023 ©

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Gross domestic product grew at a seasonally and inflation-adjusted 2.4% annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That was faster than economists expected and above the 2% growth in the first three months of the year. – Sarah Chaney Cambon and Christian Robles, Wall Street Journal Online, July 27, 2023.

The Federal Open Market Committee raised its target interest rate by another quarter point to 5.25%-5.5% after a pause at its June meeting. Mr. Powell said at his post-FOMC press conference that future rate increases are possible this year if the inflation data warrants.– The WSJ Editorial Board, “Powell on Inflation: ‘We Need to Get This Done,’” Wall Street Journal,” July 26, 2023.

The Bank of Japan announced Friday “greater flexibility” in its monetary policy — surprising global financial markets. The central bank loosened its yield curve control — or YCC — in an unexpected move with wide-ranging ramifications. It sent the Japanese Yen whipsawing against the U.S. dollar, while Japanese stocks and government bond prices slid. – Silvia Amaro, “The Bank of Japan just shocked markets with a policy tweak,” www.cnbc.com, July 28, 2023.

In the first week of trading under the current Venus retrograde cycle, central banks were very active. Rate hikes were initiated in the U.S. Eurozone, UK, Australia, Canada, and Norway. Japan just reported an unexpected spike in inflation, and with that, the BOJ announced it would loosen its yield curve control and long-standing negative interest rate policy. China and Viet Nam, however, are lowering rates.

Yet, with all this rate-hiking taking place with so many central banks, global stock markets continue to make or stay near yearly highs. Welcome to Venus retrograde, the planet of diplomacy, indecision, and contradiction, especially regarding interest rate-related markets like currencies. These very qualities, along with the “disruption” characteristic of Uranus in Taurus (sign of money and one of the signs ruled by Venus), have combined to create a sense of chaos and uncertainty in financial markets. It seems every couple of weeks the investment sentiment shifts from bullish to bearish and back again. Right now, it is bullish. But with Venus retrograde, do not be surprised to see another shift in sentiment shortly, and probably when investors least expect it – again.

Continue reading… MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING JULY 31, 2023 ©