Weekly Column: It’s going to be wild

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.