MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING APRIL 3, 2023 ©
March 31, 2023
REVIEW AND PREVIEW
March recorded the worst U.S. bank failures since the 2008 crisis, but that did not stop some investors from snapping up battered financial stocks to bolster their bets on the sector’s long-term health, fund-flow data showed… That’s despite both funds plunging about 29% in March as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank triggered fears of a contagion and doubts about the sector’s stability. – Lisa Pauline Mattackal, “What Crisis? U.S. Bank-focused ETFs See Strongest Demand in Months in March,” www.reuters.com, March 31, 2023.
“Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence” – Old archaeological adage quoted by Kristin Romey, “What Archaeology Is Telling Us About the Real Jesus,” National Geographic, March 29, 2023.
What banking crisis? Wasn’t all the evidence there for a banking collapse? Answer: only in the land of Neptune and Pisces, where realities don’t depend on evidence as much as intuition and imagination. However, in time, their intuition may prove correct, even if their timing is premature.
All the fear of two weeks ago that the global financial and banking systems were on the verge of a massive collapse suddenly evaporated. It was so Neptunian. The Sun, Mercury, and Neptune were conjunct in Pisces and in a square aspect to Mars on March 15-16, with Venus square Pluto as well, right at the height of the hysteria (Neptune and Pisces). Now, two weeks later, several global stock indices are on a two-week torrid rally, and much of the recent decline has been recovered. This is what markets look like when an MMA three-star geocosmic critical reversal combination occurs at the end (and beginning) of a primary cycle.
The pattern was nearly the same throughout the world. That is, most indices formed a primary cycle low between March 15-20. And from those lows, most rallied strongly into the close of Friday, March 31. In Asia and the Pacific Rim, this was the case in the ASX (Australia), Hang Seng, Nifty, and Nikkei indices. But each of these is still well below their highs of this year. In China, a new low did not form March 15-20, but Friday did see the SSE trade near its high of the prior week.
In Europe, all four indexes we track also rallied smartly from their lows of March 16-20 to multi-week highs on Friday. The German DAX was especially strong, reaching 15,659 and closing in on its high for this new year on March 7 at 15,706.
The Americas also saw sharp rallies. Of most interest was the NASDAQ futures, which posted its highest mark since mid-August of 2022. Technology stocks have been the leader, which isn’t surprising since Thursday was the conjunction between Venus and Uranus (tech) in Taurus (money and securities). But that aspect is passing now, and the market is becoming overbought.
In other markets, Crude Oil followed the same path as stocks. That is, a primary cycle low (and the lowest price since December 2021!) formed at 64.36 on March 20. But then commenced a 16% rally into a high of 75.72 on Friday, March 31. Silver was similar and from a primary cycle low of 19.94 on March 8, it soared to a high of 24.31 on Friday, a gain of nearly 22%. However, it is still below its yearly high of 24.77 on January 3, whereas Gold made a new yearly high the prior week, on March 20, at 2014.90. It’s a case of mixed divergences. Bitcoin was strong, soaring to 29,170 on March 30, its highest price since June 2022.
SHORT-TERM GEOCOSMICS
According to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, more than 90% of audits are on families and small businesses below the $400,000 income threshold. – Steve Scalise, Adrian Smith, “Biden’s IRS Targets Small Businesses, Families: Army of 87,000 Agents Must Be Defunded,” www.foxbusiness.com, March 20, 2023.
This tax season, there have been heightened concerns about IRS audits as the agency begins to deploy its nearly $80 billion in funding. While the IRS plans to hire more workers, including enforcement agents, experts say there’s no need to worry — as long as you keep proper documentation. Still, certain red flags are more likely to trigger an IRS audit, experts say. “Round numbers are a dead giveaway,” said Preeti Shah, a certified financial planner. – Kate Dore, CFP, “4 Red Flags for an IRS Tax Audit,” www.cnbc.com, March 29, 2023.
This year’s tax season may be a mess according to geocosmic signatures and their association with human activity. The solar eclipse of April 19-20 will form a hard square with Pluto, planet of taxes and debt. This is just one day after tax filings are due on April 18 and also just one day before Mercury turns retrograde in the middle of Taurus, the sign of money. With Mercury retrograde and the large increase of new IRS agents, it is conceivable that there will be more audits than in the past. It is also conceivable that there will be more errors in reporting than usual. Taxpayers would be well-advised to check and double-check their forms before filing.
The tax season also corresponds to another tight gathering of several important geocosmic signatures, April 11-21. For one, the Sun will conjoin Jupiter in Aries on April 11, the same day that Venus will enter Gemini and trine Pluto in Aquarius. We may get a preview of the coming Renaissance I’ve talked about in this column when Uranus and Pluto trine one another 2025-2028.
For now, we need to pay attention to the fact that stock prices have rallied sharply into the Venus/Uranus conjunction in Taurus late last week. With this aspect, you never know if it’s a breakout or a reversal. Other than the NASDAQ and the German DAX, no markets are near multi-month highs, so a pullback is certainly a possibility – unless equity indexes gap up next week, which means they open above the high of this past week and stay above there all week. A weekly “gap up” is a sign of a bullish breakout. If markets are higher next week, then we look for them to continue their rallies into the Sun/Jupiter conjunction of April 11 and even the solar eclipse of April 19-20. We will discuss this further in our weekly subscription reports tomorrow, which have been very hot on the strategies for traders in stocks and cryptos.
LONGER-TERM THOUGHTS
It’s crucial that we understand the dangers of this technology before it advances any further. People are quoting Arthur C. Clarke: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Peggy Noonan, “A Six-Month AI Pause? No. Longer Is Needed,” Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2023.
Thank you for this quote, Peggy Noonan. It perfectly describes the parallel paradigms of Pluto in Aquarius, which has just gotten underway as of March 23, as presented in last week’s online AstroData conference (www.astrodata.com). That is, Pluto in Aquarius signifies both a stunning renaissance driven by technology and innovation as well as the threat of war and a collective case of psychological dissociation, where the need for intimacy and close, supportive human contact is severely challenged by the advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
AI does present fascinating investment possibilities. But first, we need to resolve the threats of aggression by some world leaders who are obsessed with holding on to their own personal power and are willing to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, including their own populations. The last few instances where Pluto entered Aquarius, Neptune entered Aries, and Uranus entered Gemini, it corresponded within months to the three most important conflicts in U.S. history: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, and World War II. These three ingresses are taking place again in 2023-2025. But similar cosmic configurations were also present throughout the 15th century, which corresponds to the great Italian and European Renaissances.
There is hope. But there is also a clear and present danger that is likely to be visible between the solar eclipse of April 19-20 and the Mars-Jupiter-Pluto T-square of May 16-23. Let’s hope our world leaders choose the renaissance path over that of destruction.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
NOTE 1: JUNE 1-4: THE MMA INVESTMENT 2023 RETREAT AND MMTA3 COURSE TWO: “GEOCOSMIC CORRELATIONS TO LONG-TERM INVESTMENT CYCLES.” The 4-day investment retreat is taking place at the Michigan State University Management Education Center in Troy, Michigan, and is also offered virtually via Zoom. Instructors and presenters will include Ray Merriman, Gianni Di Poce, Kat Powell, and Rita Perea.
This 4-day intensive will introduce the participant to the role of Outer-Planet Aspects and Ingresses to long-term financial market cycles. With this understanding, one will learn to identify time bands that historically have coincided with the most favorable long-term investment opportunities as well as time bands that have correlated with long-term market peaks or selling opportunities. These studies are based on actual research on the performance of financial markets (like the U.S. and British stock markets) going back to the 17th century. Once these studies and methods are disclosed, the instructors will then illustrate how they apply them to current market conditions. Outlooks will be given for long-term cycles in various markets (such as stock indices, Gold, and Bitcoin), with the goal of identifying when the next excellent investment or selling opportunities are most likely to take place.
You do not need to be a student of the two-year MMTA3 program to join! “Geocosmic Correlations to Long-Term Investment Cycles” is a standalone course designed for investors. This event is an excellent opportunity to interact with MMA President Raymond Merriman and MMTA Director Gianni Di Poce, and several other like-minded students of financial market timing over an extended 4-day period. There is nothing like the in-person interactions that occur at an MMA Investment Retreat.
Cost is $2750, or $2500 if reserved before May 11. Cost includes a 120-page workbook, all class recordings, and slides of the class presentations. Note that this retreat is also in conjunction with Course Two of MMTA3, and non-student participants will get credit for Course Two if they decide to attend MMTA in the future. For further information on this unique and special event, contact MMA at 1-248-626-3034 or by email at customerservice@mmacycles.com.
NOTE 2: THE MARCH ISSUE OF THE MMA Monthly Cycles Report Plus+, edited by Pouyan Zolfagharnia, was issued last week. This market letter has become a very popular addition to the MMA Cycles Report (less technical, more visual, high-quality analysis and update on MMA Cycles Report markets). The mid-month addendum to the MMA Cycles report has very attractive graphics and charts (people love it!) and is very readable. And now it has stunning AI images added to convey various markets and sectors covered in the report! It contains more references and illustrations to geocosmics than most MMA Cycles reports and is only available for subscription to those who also subscribe to the MMA Monthly Cycles Report. If you wish to try this month’s addendum, along with the latest issue of the MMA Monthly Cycles Report, sign up HERE. Cost for a monthly copy of both reports is $55. That will give you both the most recent copy of the MMA Cycles report and the MMA Cycles Plus+ Report addendum.
NOTE 3: TUNE INTO MMA’S WEEKLY YouTube show, hosted by Gianni Di Poce. 5-15 minute FREE episodes review market activity of the past week and offer a preview of the geocosmic signatures in effect for the next week and beyond. You may subscribe to MMA’s YouTube Channel today at no cost and get alerted when a new weekly episode is released! To view this week’s MMA YouTube episode, click here.
EVENTS
June 1-4: MMA INVESTMENT RETREAT: “GEOCOSMIC CORRELATIONS TO LONG-TERM INVESTMENT CYCLES.” A 4-day, in-person investment retreat is taking place at the Michigan State University Management Education Center in Troy, Michigan, and also be offered virtually via Zoom. See description above.
Disclaimer and statement of purpose: The purpose of this column is not to forecast the future movement of various financial markets. However, that is the purpose of the MMA (Merriman Market Analyst) subscription services. This column is not a subscription service. It is a free service, except in those cases where a fee may be assessed to cover the cost of translating this column from English into a non-English language. This weekly report is written with the intent to educate the reader on the relationship between astrological factors and collective human activities as they are happening. In this regard, this report will often cite what happened in various stock and financial markets throughout the world in the past week and discuss that movement in light of the geocosmic signatures that were in effect. It will then identify the geocosmic factors that will be in effect in the next week, or even month, or even years, and the author’s understanding of how these signatures may affect human activity in the times to come. The author (Merriman) will do this from the perspective of a cycles’ analyst looking at the military, political, economic, and even financial markets of the world. It is possible that some forecasts will be made based on these factors. However, the primary goal is to both educate and alert the reader as to the psychological climate we are in from an astrological perspective. The hope is that it will help the reader understand the psychological dynamics that underlie (or coincide with) the news events and their potential effect on financial markets.
No guarantee as to the accuracy of this report is being made here. Any decisions in financial markets are solely the responsibility of the reader, and neither the author nor the publishers of this column assume any responsibility whatsoever for anyone’s trading or investment decisions. Readers of this report should understand that commodity futures and options trading are considered high risk.