MMA FREE WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING MAY 18, 2026

REVIEW

by Gianni Di Poce

China and the United States have provided critical support to the oil market and helped ease the huge supply disruption in the Middle East, and kept energy prices from surging even higher.

— Spencer Kimball, “How China and the U.S. Eased the Middle East Oil Shock and Kept Prices From Spiking Even Higher,” CNBC, May 15, 2026.

Kevin Warsh was confirmed as Fed chair Wednesday with just 54 votes, the lowest ever for a Fed chair.

— Matt Peterson, “Analysis: Trump Finally Gets His Man at the Fed. Will Kevin Warsh Disappoint Him?” Barron’s, May 13, 2026.

It was an eventful week for markets, which digested a slew of headlines in stride. There was a major summit between President Trump and Xi Jinping that didn’t rock the boat too much, and there was also the confirmation of the new Fed Chair, Kevin Warsh.

U.S. stocks finished mixed last week, with only the S&P 500 finishing in positive territory, but it was bond markets that suffered notable selling (interest rates rising). There were some hotter-than-expected inflation reports in the U.S. last week, though it’s worth noting that bond yields around the world are climbing too. Thus, despite Warsh’s reputation as a hawk, it would be unfair to attribute the bond market’s selloff solely to his nomination.

European markets finished mixed on the week, with only the Zurich SMI finishing higher. The FTSE, Amsterdam AEX, and German DAX all closed lower. The broad selling carried over into Asia and Oceania, as the Shanghai Composite, Japanese Nikkei, and the Australian All-Ordinaries all pulled back.

Precious metals also sold off notably as their appeal amid higher bond yields waned. Crude Oil finished in solidly positive territory, while grain markets were mixed, with only Wheat up, but it finished well off the week’s highs. Cryptocurrencies also saw some selling despite promising advancements on the Clarity Act, an important piece of crypto legislation.

SHORT-TERM GEOCOSMICS

This week marks another near-term shift in the inner planets. Both Venus and Mars will ingress into Cancer and Taurus, respectively, on Monday. There’s been a fair bit of reluctance about the sustainability of the rally in stocks. Still, given how long this has been going on, it seems like we have a geocosmic catalyst that will finally have the crowd “buy in” to the bullish narrative.

Naturally—and unforgivingly—this would imply the “easy money” part of the rally is nearing its end. Not only are we about to start the first Gemini season with Uranus in the same sign, with a conjunction between the Sun and Uranus on Friday, but Venus will square Neptune the same day.

With Uranus and Neptune involved, don’t be surprised if markets enter a temporary “blowoff” mode. This may also be what metals need to start trending again, although they may be waiting for Jupiter’s ingress into Leo at the end of June.

Markets will then be closed on Monday, May 25, in the U.S. in observance of Memorial Day. The intense period of geocosmic activity will continue with Mars square Pluto and Sun trine Pluto on May 26. It rounds off with Venus square Saturn on May 28.

This period may correspond to an increased disconnection with “reality.” How could markets continue to drift higher when headlines are becoming more negative? This could lead the crowd into believing a new paradigm is in effect.

Of course, the market loves to create such narratives leading up to and during important tops, just as it loves to stoke fear and hysteria near market bottoms. Fortunately, we have geocosmics to guide us to add more color to the prevailing market sentiment.

LONGER-TERM THOUGHTS (AND OPINION)

President Trump said yesterday that U.S. negotiations with Tehran were on “life support.” Why? Among other things, Iran wants to maintain control of the Strait of Hormuz.

— Sam Sifton, “Who Owns the Strait?” The New York Times, May 12, 2026.

Perhaps one of the most interesting features of the stock market’s rise over the past few weeks, specifically, is how it’s managed to shrug off periodic escalations in the Iranian conflict. Then, after the tensions cool down for a couple of days, it rallies even more.

Peace can only be “repriced” so many times. The alternative view is that the market simply doesn’t care much about this conflict. After all, have you seen the recent earnings results? We’re talking about multi-billion-dollar tech companies growing their revenue and earnings at high double-digit rates.

While this bodes well for stock prices in time, the real-world economy is another story. I am experiencing this first-hand now as I board my flight over to Europe, where I’ll be joining Ray, Wyatt, Pouyan, Wiebke, and other very special guests at the MMA Trading Retreat in beautiful Lake Bled, Slovenia. Compared to my trip to Europe last summer, the price of a ticket just to get across the pond is over 33% higher.

It doesn’t take a genius to see how this can lead to greater economic problems down the line, but when it comes to Crude Oil Prices, I have my sights set on July for the next big revelation.

All of the planets that have some form of rulership over Crude Oil come into an aspect to one another on the same day, and to make matters more auspicious, these are outer planets too. I’m talking about Jupiter trine Neptune and Jupiter opposite Pluto on July 20.

I tend to give Jupiter a freer range of rulership when it comes to Crude Oil. I see it more as a ruler of energy that includes those from other sources. It’s hard to debate Neptune’s rulership of Crude Oil, although when it comes to Pluto, I view it more as the extraction/drilling process of obtaining Crude Oil.

With the sensitivity that the global economy, and especially over-leveraged governments, have towards inflation, this could be a big moment. In a way, it’s a double-edged sword: governments want to inflate their debts away, but the catch is that higher inflation means higher interest rates, so it becomes more expensive to service that debt.

The question now is whether the trine and opposition between these oil-ruling planets lead to a surprisingly beneficial supply shock, or whether they correspond to a broader irrational exuberance in stocks that abruptly ends due to negative oil developments.

The inflation situation is not pretty, but with our long-term outlook for bonds bearish into the 2030s, it’s clear this problem will persist into the end of the decade.

It wouldn’t be surprising for the next true inflationary crisis to correspond with the Saturn-Pluto square of 2028. After all, the entire inflation debacle kicked off in 2020 shortly after the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, which also marked the end of the 40-year bull market in bonds.

Remember, inflation comes in waves. Think about how Neptune rules Pisces, and how they both rule Crude Oil. Neptune is obviously the ruler of the waves, being the god of the sea.

Being able to measure and identify when successive waves of inflation will occur is key not only to survive in these inflationary years but also to thrive. History tells us it’s a balancing act between owning commodities and stocks. The former outperforms the latter when inflation accelerates, while the latter outperforms the former when inflation decelerates.

As always, we’ll be here to help you surf those waves.

NOTE: All MMA analysts will be at the MMA Investment and Trading Retreat in Lake Bled, Slovenia, next week. Thus, next week’s column will be written by Thomas Miller, an MMTA4 student and the podcast voice of the MMA Free Weekly Column at Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Music.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 NOTE 1: STARTS THIS WEDNESDAY, MAY 20!!! THE MMA 2026 TRADING AND INVESTMENT RETREAT will be offered online for those who cannot join us live in Lake Bled, Slovenia. This is your chance to learn HOW we do it — how we time short- and intermediate-term reversals and plot our daily and weekly trading strategies in financial markets.

 This special four-day retreat will start with Ray Merriman’s introduction to the “Post–Aries Vortex Era,” which officially began with the geocosmic setup on February 20, 2026, and the political event on April 7, 2026.

This retreat will address what this “New Aira” means for the Techno Renaissance now that Uranus (technology) has moved into Gemini, trine Pluto (social and financial transformation). And what does it mean for Russia (and other nations), given their historical correlation to leadership implosions within one year of the Saturn–Neptune conjunction? What trading opportunities lie ahead this year as Jupiter translates the powerful Uranus–Pluto trine in air signs in mid-July?

These special presentations and interactive discussions on current and future world conditions through 2032 that are likely to affect financial markets will be led by world-class mundane astrologers Claude Weiss (Switzerland), Christeen Skinner (UK), Christof Niederwieser (Germany), Pouyan Zolfagharnia (UK), and Raymond Merriman (USA). Joining them to present MMA timing methods and short-term trading strategies will be MMTA Director Wiebke Held (Germany) and MMA analysts Wyatt Fellows (USA), Ulric Aspegrén (Switzerland), Gianni Di Poce (USA), and MMA Trading Coach Rita Perea (USA).

The Retreat will cover the unique, research-based MMA methods for identifying primary, half-primary, major, and trading cycles. It will then apply those market-timing techniques (cycles and geocosmic studies) to current conditions in the stock markets, Gold, Silver, Bitcoin, currencies, interest rates (T-Notes), and grain markets, with strategies for each on both a short- and intermediate-term basis (from one week to 12 months ahead). This retreat will also cover the setup and steps for applying MMA’s solar/lunar reversal dates to very short-term, aggressive trades in Bitcoin, stock indices, and precious metals.

For the revised schedule, registration, speaker bios, topic descriptions, hotel information, and the booking code, please click here. PLEASE NOTE THAT ONE ROOM AT THE RIKLI BALANCE HAS NOW OPENED UP AS OF FRIDAY, MAY 15, DUE TO A CANCELLATION. We will hold that room at the reduced MMA special rate through this Sunday, after which it will be returned to the Rikli inventory for sale at the normal retail rate. Hotel rooms at the Rikli Balance have been sold out since March, so this is an unexpected opportunity for someone who wants to attend live. Please contact us at customerservice@mmacycles.com if interested. For a trailer video of what to expect, click here.

The MMA Annual Investment and Traders’ Retreat is an incredible event! Don’t miss it if you can make it!

NOTE 2: REDUCED RATES for online attendees at the May 20–24 MMA Traders Retreat. For those who cannot be present at Lake Bled for the Retreat, the cost to attend online will be $300 less ($3600 instead of $3900). In addition to viewing the live presentations, recordings of each day’s presentations, along with the accompanying PowerPoint slides, will be uploaded and made available within 24 hours of each presentation.

 NOTE 3: THE MAY ISSUE OF THE MMA MONTHLY TECH REPORT BY WIEBKE HELD WILL BE RELEASED THIS WEEK, ON MAY 18–19. With the NASDAQ soaring to new all-time highs, this will be another very timely report. This report provides an outlook and strategies not only for the NASDAQ but also for the QQQ ETF, NASDAQ futures, and specific technology stocks, including Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, Tesla, and Apple. It also includes CRDs (critical reversal dates) specific to the NASDAQ, based on Wiebke’s meticulous research. Focusing on the NASDAQ is crucial because of the outsized role technology will play in financial markets — especially given that Pluto has been in Aquarius for nearly 20 years and Uranus in Gemini for nearly 7 years. If you would like to try a one-month subscription, you can sign up for the May report for only $35 — or save by ordering a three-report or twelve-report subscription.

NOTE 4: THE ANNUAL MMA MID-YEAR MARKET WEBINAR WITH MMA MARKET ANALYSTS WILL TAKE PLACE ON JUNE 20 AT 1:00 PM EDT.!!! In the comfort of your own home or office, you can tune in to MMA’s annual Mid-Year Financial Markets Update Webinar. This year’s webinar will be in a slightly different format than previous ones. It will be hosted by Raymond Merriman, who will introduce each market and then conduct an interactive interview with the MMA analyst covering that market, discussing its outlook for the second half of 2026. The analysts and markets to be covered this year will include Bitcoin (Merriman), NASDAQ (Wiebke Held), S&P and T-Notes (Gianni Di Poce), Euro (Ulric Aspegrén), Silver and Crude Oil (Pouyan Zolfagharnia), and Gold and Soybeans or Wheat (Wyatt Fellows). This webinar/workshop will last approximately three to four hours, with two five-minute breaks. The cost is $66 (a super bargain for a workshop covering these markets), which includes access to the live presentation via Zoom, the presentation slides, and a video recording of the live event within 24 hours of the presentation. This is MMA’s annual mid-year market update. If you are unable to attend live, the video recording will be available the following day. To register, click here

 NOTE 5: WE HAVE JUST COMPLETED A NEW UPGRADE FOR THE FAR FOR GALACTIC TRADER SOFTWARE PROGRAM!!! We can now conduct solar/lunar weighted value studies for any market by isolating or omitting any planet that is retrograde! For instance, we can now compare solar/lunar values for any market when Mercury (or Venus, Mars, or any planet) is retrograde or direct, or both. This is important because we have noticed that when Mercury is retrograde, the lunar values for Bitcoin perform differently in many cases than when Mercury is direct. If you don’t own the FAR for the Galactic Trader program, which is key to conducting MMA research studies to identify turning points in any financial market, and you wish to know more about it, please click here. The cost is $1895 (end-of-day version) and includes Jeanne Long’s Galactic Trader software, featuring extensive W. D. Gann trading tools that she created.

 NOTE 6: THE JUPITER REPORT: YOUR MOMENTS OF OPPORTUNITY! The Jupiter Report is written by Raymond Merriman. It is a 30- to 40-page report that all traders (and even non-traders) will find highly valuable. It identifies the times during the year when Jupiter transits are highlighted in your natal chart and explains the meaning of Jupiter’s transits to your natal planets and angles over 14 months (including one month before your order date and one month after the year ends). As an added bonus, each transit is ranked on a scale from –3 to +3 in terms of favorability for trading. Traders may find this especially valuable! Would you like to know if you are under a +3 transit and therefore most likely to experience trading success? Or a –3 transit, with a stronger-than-usual potential for misjudgments that can be costly? The price for a personal 14-month Jupiter Report based on your birth data is $69.

Coming soon! The Saturn Report: Mastering Your Life Cycles. Due out in late summer.

 NOTE 7: THE MMA SOLAR-LUNAR APP OFFERS REVERSAL SIGNALS FOR THE DJIA, NASDAQ, GOLD, AND SILVER. It is an ideal tool to have in your back pocket if you are a short-term swing trader looking for high-probability dates that identify isolated lows and highs in these markets. Please note that this should not be used as a standalone system. It works best as an adjunct tool when cycle lows or highs are due, when a market is technically overbought or oversold, or when it is exhibiting intermarket bullish or bearish divergence relative to a related market. The app is currently available only on Apple devices (iPhone and iPad). To learn more about the MMA app, click here. To order, go to the Apple App Store and search for Merriman Solar/Lunar Reversals.

 EVENTS

 MAY 20–24, 2026: MMA’S NEXT INVESTMENT RETREAT, LAKE BLED, SLOVENIA. Registration is open until May 19 (this week). The presentations will also be available via Zoom for those unable to attend in person. The theme of this event will focus on market timing and trading, including how to calculate and use solar/lunar reversal cycles. But there will also be coverage of longer-term cycles, with strategies for all! It’s going to be great!

JUNE 20, 2026: MMA’S ANNUAL MID-YEAR MARKETS UPDATE WEBINAR. Save the date! Note that the date has been moved up by 1 day to Saturday, June 20, at 1 PM EDT.

SEPTEMBER 3, 2026: A UAC PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP ON FINANCIAL ASTROLOGY BY RAYMOND MERRIMAN, 1:00–5:00 PM. This workshop will take place at the United Astrology Congress (UAC), the world’s largest astrological conference, held every 4 to 8 years. More than 150 world-class astrologers will be presenting, and over 1500 attendees will be present. The conference will be held at the Marriott Downtown Chicago Magnificent Mile Hotel. In addition to the workshop, Ray will present another lecture during the six-day event on mundane astrology, titled “What Is Happening in the World from an Astrological Viewpoint,” on September 5. For more information, visit www.uacastrology.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 of educating the reader on the relationship between astrological factors and collective human activities as they occur. 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 those movements 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, 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 cycle analyst looking at the military, political, economic, and 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 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) 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.