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Stocks rallied Friday even after the release of stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data and a pop in Treasury yields. The U.S. economy added 336,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected 170,000 jobs. Stocks posted a stunning turnaround on Friday, after initially falling on the stronger-than-expected jobs report. At its session low, the Dow had fallen as much as 272 points; it surged by more than 400 points at the height of the rally. – Sarah Min and Hakyung Kim, “Dow Soars Nearly 300 Points Friday After Hot Jobs Report,” October 6, 2023, www.cnbc.com.
Government! Three-fourths parasitic and the other fourth stupid fumbling. – Robert Heinlein, “Stranger in a Strange Land,” G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1961.
Members of the US Congress are now incapable of doing anything. Financial markets are not surprised that members of the US Congress are incapable of doing anything. Investors only care whether House Republicans can get the extreme wing under control long enough to elect a speaker before the next government shutdown in mid-November. Dr. Paul Donovan, “US Politicians are Incapable of Doing Anything,” UBS Morning Comment, October 4, 2023.
Last week was every bit as bizarre and insane as the Venus/Uranus square that ended the prior week would suggest. Aspects like this involving the planet Uranus have two faces when it comes to financial markets. They either break out below multi-month support or above multi-month resistance or they end the trend and reverse. Usually, these moves are accompanied by unexpected surprises in the political or banking realm. Investors and their markets witnessed all last week.
In the U.S., the DJIA and S&P broke below their primary cycle lows of last August, but the NASDAQ held above its low of the previous week and then closed above its previous weekly high. Crude Oil made its yearly high on September 28, just one day before the Venus/Uranus square. It then collapsed to a new 5-week low one week later, on Friday, October 6.
Gold and Silver, like the DJIA, broke to the downside, with both plummeting to their lowest price since March. But on Friday, both posted very healthy rallies (reversals), right in line with our special Gold report issued Thursday morning. The U.S. Dollar, on the other hand, soared to its highest mark of the year last Monday, only to reverse sharply lower into Friday. Not to be outdone, Bitcoin surged early last week to its highest price since August 17. All of this in the week that Matt Gaetz staged a minority uprising in the U.S. House of Representatives to unseat Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who had just successfully engineered a deal to prevent another possible government shutdown with the bipartisan help of the opposing party. His reward? Both the Democrats (all of them) plus 8 of Gaetz’s Republican extremists booted him out. The chaos left in the week of government dysfunction is part of the Uranus business & political model.
SHORT-TERM GEOCOSMICS
I see the bad moon a-risin’
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin’
I see bad times today
- Credence Clearwater Revival, – “Bad Moon Rising”, 1969
A key demand among far-right Republicans has been to kill off US funding of Ukraine’s effort to beat back the Russian invasion. One clear beneficiary of the political maelstrom in Washington appears to be Vladimir Putin, whose effort to crush his neighbor now depends in part on Western nations, and in particular the US, depriving Ukraine of the ability to defend itself. Bloomberg News, Evening Briefing, October 3, 2023.
Many of the offenses the rebels cited as grounds for deposing Mr. McCarthy were of their own making. How dare Mr. McCarthy fail to pass all 12 House spending bills by Sept. 30? How dare he then go to Democrats to get the votes to keep the government open? The insurgents engineered that outcome…The purpose of all this? Some Republicans noted that Mr. Gaetz’s antics were driven by his need for attention. The sad truth is that Washington has always been a town divided between those who put in the work and those who preen. – Kimberly Strassel, “Gaetz & Co: A Tale as Old as Time,” Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2023.
Yep, the King of Preen, taking advantage of a foolish Republican House policy that allows someone like Gaetz with such an overabundant need of recognition hunger to 1) provide support to Putin’s prediction that the U.S. and Europe would weary of war (and thus allow him to get away with murder, rape, kidnapping, and a host of other Plutonian war crimes and 2), allow an extremist minority group with less than 5% support from his colleagues to disrupt the operations of government against the will of the vast majority within its own party. Is that really how democracy works, or is it an example of taking the high moral ground that the Congressman claims he is following on behalf of the American people?
So the next potential government shutdown is scheduled for November 17, right in time for the Sun/Mars conjunction in Scorpio discussed in last week’s column. We are getting a glimpse of what that will be all about now as 1) Mars prepares to enter Scorpio this week, October 11-12, and 2) just 1-3 days after the two co-rulers of Scorpio (Mars and Pluto) are highlighted with Mars square Pluto this Sunday, October 8, and Pluto turning direct on Tuesday, October 10. That’s a lot of Pluto-Scorpio energy, which means enemies will be digging their feet in and refusing to budge, even if it means a threat to their survival (probably figuratively speaking, but you never know with these signatures how brutal it can be).
Think of Pluto and Scorpio like a hot, smoldering volcano where the lava is slowly winding down the mountainside, picking up steam as it lurches towards something sacred, something valuable, like property, a life, a relationship, or a position at work. Someone is going to get burnt if they don’t move out of the path of fire in time. It won’t pay to be relentless and uncompromising. On the other hand, you should be aware of who is coming after you or your job to exact revenge for personal reasons, even if they are not true (maybe more so if they are true). In Gaetz’s case, according to Strassel of the Wall Street Journal, Gaetz was “… furious that Mr. McCarthy wouldn’t break the (House) rules and somehow intervene to stop a (Ethics) probe into allegations [against Gaetz] of sexual misconduct and misuse of funds.” With Pluto now changing directions as Mars enters Scorpio, the threat of removal may suddenly reverse to taking Gaetz out.
The Mars-Pluto-Scorpio combination is not the only cosmic drama unfolding. Venus will also move into opposition to Saturn on Tuesday, October 10. Our rule is simple: any market declining into a hard aspect between Venus and Saturn is a candidate for a strong rally. Historically, this has more correspondence to the end of a rally in stocks. But Venus actually has more relevance to grain and currency markets.
In any event, the personal message with each of these applying signatures is similar: let it go and seek harmony. There’s a “bad moon rising” underway, and if you aren’t willing to be remorseful to correct and heal the pain you caused, karma’s gonna get you.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
NOTE 1:A Special Update on Gold was issued late last week to all MMA subscription report subscribers. It covers the special geocosmic situation now in effect for Gold, including price targets and chart patterns. It also notes the current situation with stock indices. If you are a subscriber to any of these reports and did not receive this special update, let us know at once! If you are not a subscriber and wish a copy of this report, consider a minimum one-month subscription to the monthly MMA Cycles Report for only $35, which will cover this special Gold update as well as the next monthly MMA Cycles Report, due out the following week. Yearly subscriptions are also available now at reduced rates during the annual Forecast 2024 pre-publication special (see below). To order the MMA Cycles report and receive this special Gold update too, click here.
NOTE 2: The “Annual Forecast Pre-Order Event” is underway!!! The sale will run through October 31 and will include our once-a-year sale discounts on both the annual Forecast Book and MMA Subscription Reports. You may pre-order Forecast 2024 Print at the discounted rate of $55, or the eBook at $45. And the best deal on MMA Subscription Reports is also offered at this time! Save 10% off any subscription ($275+) with purchase of Forecast 2024.
After the pre-order event ends on November 1st, the retail price of Forecast 2024 Print increases to $66, and the eBook increases to $55.
MMA will also offer a special “bundle” discount rate for those who wish to order both the eBook and print editions of Forecast 2024. The eBook usually comes out 1-2 weeks before the print edition, and avoids delays caused by the postal system, especially if overseas. Yet many readers prefer the print edition, so ordering both via The Forecast 2024 Bundle makes sense. You will receive the eBook on December 15th, and your Print copy will be mailed mid-December.
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.
The Forecast 2023 Scorecard of the Forecast 2023 Book can now be viewed by clicking here.
NOTE 3: Special Offer this season!!! MMA’s newest monthly report, “MMA Monthly Grains Report” by Grains Analyst Wyatt Fellows. The cost of this subscription is normally $325, but on sale now for only $300 for a 1-Year subscription. If ordered together with the Forecast 2024 Book, there will be a further 10% discount bringing the cost of the report down to only $270 for a 1-Year Subscription! To order, click here. The next Grain Cycles Report was issued last week.
NOTE 4: THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF THE MMA Monthly Cycles Report Plus+, edited by Pouyan Zolfagharnia, was issued this week. This market letter has become a very popular addition to the MMA Cycles Report (less technical, more visual with horoscopes of current importance, high-quality analysis and update on MMA Cycles Report markets. The mid-month addendum to the MMA Cycles report has stunning graphics and charts (people love it!) and is very readable. It contains more illustrations and references 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 online at the link above. The cost for a monthly copy of both reports is $55. That will give you both the October copy of the MMA Cycles Report and the MMA Cycles Report Plus+ addendum. Please note that subscriptions rates for this report will increase as of January 1, 2024. Sign up now to lock in current rates and save big bucks! For further information and ordering instructions, please click here.
Note 5: THE MMA WEEKLY YouTube show, Geocosmic Week in Review and Look Ahead, with Gianni Di Poce, is now conducted on Wednesday evenings! Each 5-15 minute FREE episode reviews the market activity of the past week and offers 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!
NOTE 6: MMA’S FREE WEEKLY COLUMN IS NOW ON SPOTIFY, APPLE, AND AMAZON PODCAST! Now you can listen to a podcast of this weekly column by Thomas Miller on Saturdays! Just follow Merriman Market Analyst on Spotify or Apple to listen to all our episodes. New Podcast episodes will be released every weekend. This is a FREE service and is available to everyone. Checkout out our Podcasts on Apple, Spotify, MMA- Merriman Market Analyst Podcast and on YouTube, Merriman Market Analyst. It makes for great listening!
EVENTS
January 12, 2024. “Trends for 2024,” sponsored by AstroData of Zurich, Switzerland. Speakers to be announced shortly, but will include Ray Merriman giving his outlook on 2024. This event is in German, and Merriman’s presentation will be traslated from English to German. For further information, contact www.AstroData.com.
February 18, 2024, MMA’s Annual Forecast 2024 World Webinar. Details and reservations will be opened after January 1. Save the Date!
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.