REVIEW AND PREVIEW
Biden’s big spending bill takes $80B of OUR money to hire more IRS agents … to take more of OUR money and snoop on what we share on Venmo/Cash apps. They are not going after the wealthy. They’re coming for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and hardworking Americans – Tulsi Gabbard @TulsiGabbard, Twitter, August, 9 2022.
Argentina’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 950 basis points on Thursday as the country struggles to keep a lid on spiraling inflation that rose to a 20-year high of 71%, according to new data.The central bank raised the benchmark “Leliq” rate for the 28-day term to 69.5% from 60%, a rate the bank set just two weeks ago when it hiked the rate by 800 basis points” – Reuters, “Argentina Hikes Interest rates to 69.5% as Inflation Hits 20-Year High,” August 11, 2022, www.cnbc.com
It was a perfectly normal week as far as lunar signs go, as the U.S. stock market made a high on Monday, August 8, with the Moon in Sagittarius, a low on Tuesday with the Moon in Capricorn, and then a much higher high on Friday with the Moon in Aquarius. But it was also a highly unusual market (and political) week in another sense because despite the aftermath of the Mars/Uranus/Lunar Node conjunction in Taurus on August 1 and the full moon last week forming a T-square with the approaching Saturn/Uranus square, there was no meaningful downside reversal other than the 400-point, one day drop in the DJIA from Monday’s high to Tuesday’s low. Instead, stock prices accelerated their gains in the new bull run that started in mid-June. Actually, this behavior is only half-unusual, for with Uranus, as stated many times in this column, you don’t know if financial markets will suddenly reverse or accelerate the underlying trend to new multi-month highs or lows. In the current case, it is the latter, as many world stock indices soared to their highest level of this year last week, despite the Department Of Justice’s bizarre and unprecedented raid on ex-President Trump’s home in Florida, followed by Congress’s passage of the totally misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act” that will weaponize the IRS and do little if anything to reduce inflation. Why is it that the Democrats always want to control our boardrooms and the Republicans our bedrooms? These political events are most definitely symbolic of the nature of the geocosmic signatures that are in effect during the first two weeks of August.
Most of the global stock indices made multi-month highs last week, but not all. In Asia and the Pacific Rim, the Japanese Nikkei stood out as it soared to its highest mark since January 18. India’s Nifty was also a star performer, rising to its highest level since April 11. The Australian ASX made a new 3-month high. But the exceptions were in China and Hong Kong. The Shanghai Composite did rally to 3288 on Friday, nicely up from its prior week’s low of 3155 on August 2, but well below its recent high of 3424 on July 5. The Hang Seng, on the other hand, had a dismal week, falling to its lowest price since May 12. These are the only two equity markets we track that did not make at least a 3-month high.
In Europe, the Netherlands AEX exhibited an almost perfect geocosmic chart pattern, with a new cycle and 4-month high on our August 4 three-star critical reversal date, and a low on Wednesday, August 10, with the Moon in Capricorn. The German DAX, Zurich SMI, and London FTSE all made 3-month highs last week.
In the Americas, the Brazilian Bovespa exploded to its highest mark since April 22. All the U.S. indices put in new cycle highs on Friday with the S&P and DJIA reaching their highest mark since May 4-5 and since April 22the NASDAQ.
Bitcoin and Ethereum had nice weeks with each soaring to their highest marks since the collapse into their lows of June 18. Bitcoin has now rallied 41.6% from those lows, and Ethereum a whopping 120%. Gold and Silver also made new cycle highs last week, with Gold rising to 1824.60 and Silver to 20.85. Just three weeks ago, Gold made its 16-month cycle low at 1678.
It’s never easy to forecast precisely under powerful Uranus aspects signatures, and the Master of disruptions and unexpected events will continue to dominate the cosmic narrative through the end of September. One thing of interest, however, is that the Jupiter retrograde cycle of July 28 is indeed coinciding with a new round of strength and military success by Ukraine in its fight for survival against the Russian forces that are trying to overtake its nationhood, just as this column suggested.
SHORT-TERM GEOCOSMICS AND LONGER-TERM THOUGHTS
A federal jury in Chicago convicted two former employees of JP Morgan Chase & Co’s precious metals desk who had been charged with manipulating gold prices, finding they used misleading orders to rig prices. JP Morgan paid $920 million in 2020 to settle regulatory and criminal charges against the bank over the traders’ conduct. – Dave Michaels, “JP Morgan Ex-Traders Convicted of Fraud,” Wall Street Journal, August 12, 2022.
The above quote relates to another observation made recently in this column about the behavior in precious metals seeming to be a little bit too weird. But here we are, with transiting Pluto making a powerful T-square to the Jupiter/Neptune opposite Saturn position in the founding chart of the NYSE and corruption comes to the surface in this conviction. Under a hard Pluto transit, no one escapes unscathed. And the NYSE is just one of several charts under a hard transit aspect from Pluto. Others include former President Donald Trump (everyone saw what happened to him last week), current President Joe Biden (think Hunter and his laptop’s trove of potentially damning information), the Federal Reserve and its Chair Jerome Powell, and the United States itself. They (and others) each have sensitive “natal” planets in 25-28 degrees of cardinal signs, which is where Pluto is now and through much of 2023.
We are now in the midst of the most intense geocosmic climate of the year in August and September. Everything cosmically is pointing to the week of September 21-28 when Saturn will make its 4th and final 45-year waning square passage to Uranus (well, within less than a degree of exactness). This will be the sixth time this aspect has happened in the U.S. history. Every alternate or “other time” is 90 years, and it is interesting to note that the “other times” of the early 1840s and 1930s have coincided with the most devastating stock market crashes ever (80 and 90% losses, respectively). Could it happen again this decade? It’s possible, but as of now, the recent decline appears to be only a normal 23-month cycle trough that ended June 16-17 with a decline of 19.7% in the DJIA. Our forecast was for 10-26%, after which a powerful rally would unfold until at least September-December 2022. We will be refining this study now in time for the Investment Retreat that starts in 4 weeks (see Announcements at the end).
As pointed out earlier, there are an unusual number of Uranus signatures in effect in August-September. The first was August 1. The second is taking place now as the Sun forms an opposition to Saturn and square to Uranus, August 11-14. The next one will be when Uranus turns stationary retrograde on August 24, followed by Venus in square to Uranus and opposition to Saturn, August 27-28. Both of these periods are likely to be significant in several financial markets, which will be discussed in detail in our weekly subscription reports. But also noteworthy will be the powerful, heliocentric Mercury transiting through Sagittarius, August 16-29, which has major implications for precious metals.
It’s going to be wild. It’s been wild. And a whole lotta’ shakin’ is still coming up for markets, nature, weather, politics, and traveling.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
NOTE 1: THE AUGUST ISSUE OF THE MMA Monthly Cycles Report was just released last week! With August-September containing the most intense geocosmic signatures of the year, this is a very important market timing period for many financial markets. Several markets may be primed to make a significant reversal of recent trends, including the U.S. stock market. Every issue provides an intermediate-term investors’ and near-term traders’ outlook for the U.S. stock market, Gold, Silver, Treasuries, Euro Currency, Crude Oil, and Soybeans. Each issue also contains MMA’s original geocosmic critical reversal dates (CRDs) and Solar/Lunar reversal dates over the next several weeks for DJIA, Gold, and Silver, complete with trading strategies for position traders during the next month. If you are not a subscriber to the monthly MMA Cycles Report and would like a copy of MMA’s outlook for financial markets, consider trying the August issue for only $35. For an additional $20, you can also receive the next issue, due in two weeks, of the MMA Monthly Cycles Report Plus+ edited by Pouyan Zolfagharnia, which 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).
NOTE 2: FORECAST 2023 SPECIAL OFFERS ARE NOW UNDERWAY! Written by Raymond Merriman, the preliminary outlook is that 2023 will be another very important year, with Pluto starting its 20-year transit through Aquarius. Although 2022 is not yet over, several forecasts made in the 2022 book have already unfolded. For a review of the Forecast 2022 Book so far, please visit our Scorecard. It is impressive!
This Annual Forecast Pre-Order Event will run August 2 – October 31 and will include our once-a-year sale discounts on both the annual Forecast Book, print and eBook, and MMA Subscription Reports. You may pre-order Forecast 2023 at the discounted rate of $45. And the best deal on MMA Subscription Reports is offered at this time! Save 10% off any subscription ($275+) with purchase of Forecast 2023.
After the pre-order event ends, the price for Forecast 2023 will increase to $55 on November 1st. We have worked very hard to keep our Forecast price the same for the past 10 years- no price increase due to inflation (yet)!
Want to save even more on Forecast 2023? Sign up for any subscription report between now and September 16th to be upgraded to our Active Subscriber Club. Club members receive a discount code to pre-order Forecast 2023 for only $35!
We will again publish an individual book dedicated to the yearly trends for the twelve individual signs. The book, Trends for the Twelve Signs 2023, will be written by Antonia Langsdorf-Merriman and Raymond Merriman. Antonia has written an annual Sun Sign book in German for the past several years, based on interviews conducted with Raymond beforehand. We will follow a format this year where Langsdorf will cover the health and relationships outlook and Merriman will cover the business, career, and overall psychological outlook of each sign for the year. The cost of this book will be $25, with a further discount if ordered together with the Forecast 2023 Book.
We offer discounts to our Forecast Fan Club Members and our Active Subscriber Club members. Check out our page on Forecast Club Levels to learn more about these discounts.
This year’s printed and eBook versions will also be available in these languages:
German: www.mma-europe.ch/ or email at info@mma-europe.ch
Japanese: https://www.toushinippou.co.jp/
Chinese: www.nodoor.com/
We created an updated list of our most common Forecast FAQs to help this Forecast season.
NOTE 3: ONE MORE WEEK! You asked for it and now it’s coming! The new MMA ETF Monthly Cycles Report will launch on August 17! Written by MMTA director Gianni Di Poce, this report will cover SPY (S&P stock market), GDX (Gold), BITO (Bitcoin), TLT (Treasuries), USO Crude Oil ETF), XLV (Health groups), XLK (Technology), and XHB (home builders, real estate). Now you can get our cycles and geocosmic outlooks for the most popular and traded ETFs, which trade like stocks on the major exchanges. A great compliment to the monthly MMA Cycles Report. For an overview from Gianni about what this new monthly report will cover, check out his newest ETF Episode on Merriman Market Analyst’s YouTube Channel.
NOTE 4: TUNE INTO MMA’S NEW WEEKLY YouTube Channel on the geocosmic climate related to financial markets hosted by MMTA Educational Director Gianni Di Poce. New videos are recorded and released every Friday night. These 5-15 minute video presentations 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 announcements when each geocosmic market review is ready for viewing! This week’s program will feature Ray Merriman being interviewed with Gianni di Poce, and will not only discuss the upcoming geocosmic climate, but also, review the Forecast 2022 Book with an eye towards Forecast 2023! To view this week’s MMA YouTube episode, click here.
NOTE 5: ONLY 4 MORE WEEKS! THE MMA 2022 TRADING AND INVESTMENT RETREAT in Troy, Michigan. Hosted at the Michigan State University Education Center, this event will take place both in-person and virtually September 9-11, 2022. MARK THE DATE! This special 3-day event will feature a long-term, intermediate-term, and short-term analysis of several financial markets, including the U.S. stock market, Gold, Bitcoin, Euro, T-Notes, and Crude Oil, plus others to be determined. It will also go into depth with the MMA trading plan – how to use the daily and weekly report data points – and how we assess each market and determine the trading strategy for each day based on MMA’s cycles analysis, geocosmic studies, solar/lunar studies, combined with chart patterns, price targets, and technical studies. Raymond Merriman and Gianni di Poce will be leading these discussions and presentations.
Attendance of non-students will be limited, and special rates will be available to selected subscribers of MMA subscription reports UNTIL AUGUST 16! If you are a short-term trader, or an investor interested in the longer- and intermediate-term outlook, this is a special event you will not want to miss! It is an opportunity not only to see and hear the forecasts for several financial markets, but also an opportunity to connect with those who have studied and apply the MMA methodology of market analysis and market timing. It doesn’t mean you have to be a student to benefit from this event, but you will be able to hear the outlooks of those who do. This is a one-of-its-kind opportunity and a chance to really get deeply into the outlook for the next five years! For information and registration click here. Or drop us an email at customerservice@mmacycles.com. An added feature will be “Determining Your Best and Most Challenging Times for Trading Via Transits to your Natal Chart.”
Please note that we are staying at the Embassy Suite Hotel in Troy, about one mile from the conference center. They will hold rooms for us at the special rate of $139/night until August 26. After that they will release any unsold rooms to the public. Call us or email us for the special code to insert for the MMA special rate.
Note: The MMA Investment Retreat is also available both in-person and as a virtual event via Zoom.
NOTE 6: MMA’S DAILY AND WEEKLY SUBSCRIPTION REPORTS ARE HOT! If you are an active short-term trader, or even if you are an investor who likes to keep up with our current thoughts on financial markets, you will be interested in MMA’s Weekly or Daily Market reports. The weekly reports give an in-depth analysis of the DJIA, S&P and NASDAQ futures, Euro currency (cash and futures), Dollar/Yen cash and Yen futures, Euro/Yen cash, T-Notes, Soybeans, Gold and Silver, and Crude Oil, and Bitcoin. The daily reports cover all stock indices listed above, as well as the Euro Currency, Japanese Yen, Bitcoin, T-Notes, Gold and Silver, plus GLD and SLV (the Gold and Silver ETF’s). Both reports provide trading strategies and recommendations for position traders and shorter-term aggressive traders. Subscription to the Daily report also includes the Weekly report. And now is the best time to become a subscriber: Sign up for any subscription report between now and September 16th to be upgraded to our Active Subscriber Club. Club members receive a discount code to pre-order Forecast 2023 for only $35!
EVENTS
ONLY 2 MORE WEEKS! AUGUST 25, 2022: 1:00 PM, Denver, CO, ISAR Conference, 4-Hour Pre-Conference Workshop by Raymond Merriman on “ASTROLOGY AND THE ART OF FINANCIAL MARKET TIMING: HOW TO FORECAST TRENDS AND MARKET REVERSALS.” Here is your chance to attend the only live one-day workshop on Financial Astrology that Ray Merriman is giving this year! Financial markets offer objective means to test astrological validity. The Moon changes signs every 2-3 days and is valuable for short-term trading. Planetary stations and aspects identify longer-term market reversals. Approximately 4-5 times/year, markets will form important highs or lows, which are the most favorable times to buy and sell for position traders. This course provides research studies showing the correlation of astrological factors to short-term and longer-term financial markets. These studies are important to one’s investment and trading planning. The focus will be on stock markets, precious metals (Gold and Silver), and Bitcoin, and how to integrate astrology with cycle studies to attain optimal market timing advantage. Visit https://isar2022.org/schedule/ for further information and register for a great event! For a video description of this workshop via interview between Ray Merriman and Conference Coordinator Laura Nalbandian, click this link: https://youtu.be/kBxYZ_VpckA.
September 9-11, 2022: THE MMA TRADING AND INVESTMENT RETREAT, Troy, Michigan. Hosted at the Michigan State University Education Center, this event will take place both in-person and virtually September 9-11. This special 3-day event will feature long-term, intermediate-term, and short-term analysis of several financial markets, including the U.S. stock market, Gold, Silver, Bitcoin, Euro, T-Notes, and Crude Oil, plus others to be determined. Led by Raymond Merriman, MMA President, and Gianni Di Poce, MMTA Education Director, this retreat will also go into depth with the MMA trading plan – how to use the daily and weekly report data points – and how we assess each market and determine the trading strategy for each day/week based on MMA’s market timing methods. If you are a short-term trader, or an investor interested in the longer- and intermediate-term outlook, this is a special event you will not want to miss! For information and registration, click here. Or drop us an email at customerservice@mmacycles.com.
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.