Weekly Column: The future is still worth fighting for

NOTE: U.S. markets are closed Monday in observance of the Juneteenth holiday 

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 led a mixed market Friday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back as investors wrapped the worst stretch since the pandemic amid inflation and recession fears. In commodities, oil fell 9.2% to $109.56 per barrel for the week. – “U.S. Stocks Close Our Worst Week Since the Pandemic,” June 17, 2022.

The Fed has a classic dilemma. Inflation is mainly driven by either prices it cannot control (commodity related) or prices no one pays (owners’ equivalent rent, which is signaling a rising price of home ownership when most US homeowners pay a lower price than two years’ ago). Many prices the Fed can influence are in disinflation or outright deflation (over 3% of the CPI basket has year-on-year deflation). The Fed’s dilemma is how much more deflation to create in prices it can control, to offset the inflation in prices it cannot control. Dr. Paul Donovan, economist, “How Much Deflation?” UBS Morning Audio Comment, June 13, 2022. 

Review and preview 

This is getting pretty ugly. You get the feeling that Jamie Dimon and Elon Musk might be right when they stated in the last couple of weeks (and quoted here), regarding financial markets, something like: “Houston. Houston! We have a problem.”

In a week that witnessed Venus conjunct Uranus (June 11) and square Saturn (June 18), which is known as a “translation” of Venus to the Saturn/Uranus square, and with the Sun square Neptune right in the middle (June 16), many markets got hammered. As mentioned in our Twitter feed early in the week, these are signatures of a “mini-panic.” If you don’t follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mmacycles, you may be missing important posts that we now issue regarding geocosmic and lunar signatures related to current market behaviors.

The markets got pummeled last week as leaders of governments and central banks – who can affect markets with their policies, decisions, and announcements – seemed to lose much credibility. This is typical of the Sun square Neptune, and it won’t end quickly, as Neptune will turn retrograde on the New Moon of June 28 with the Sun also square Jupiter. As a result, we have a mini-panic underway (maybe more than “mini”), which is the nature of Uranus being highlighted, too, as several global equity indices and other financial markets broke long-term, critical support. I will have some further thoughts on this in the next section.

In Asia and the Pacific Rim, Australia’s ASX index fell on Friday to its lowest level since November 2020. India’s Nifty Index also fell to a new yearly low. The Japanese Nikkei Index dropped sharply to a new monthly low and is approaching its yearly low made on March 9. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was relatively calm, but bucking the trend was China’s Shanghai Composite which soared to its highest level in 3 months. The SSE is up 17% from its 33-month cycle low recorded on April 27. It’s a different world there as equity markets look up, not down, as they do everywhere else. Back in late April, it was the opposite. China looked to be in serious trouble and the rest of the world seemed to be recovering.

In Europe and the Americas, last week was a disaster. The Netherlands AEX and Zurich SMI fell to their lowest levels since December 2020 and January 2021. It wasn’t quite as dire in the London FTSE and German DAX, which held above their lows of March 7, 2022. But in Brazil, the Bovespa plunged to its lowest mark since October 2020. The DJIA and S&P fell to their lowest points since December 2020. And the NASDAQ suffered even more, falling to levels not seen since September 2020. Even with these declines, the losses from the all-time or multi-year highs of November-January have still not exceeded 26% in most of these indices. The NASDAQ has exceeded 26%, which is the extent of a normal correction of the rally off the pandemic lows of March 2020. The NASDAQ, which by the way, is ruled by Uranus, in its square with Saturn is finally imploding as expected, just a little delayed.

However, one sector of financial markets that has exceeded normal levels of decline is the crypto markets. Bitcoin tested 20,000 last week, down 70.9% from its all-time high of 68,999 on November 9, 2021. It was worse in Ethereum, which has now lost 79.2% of its value from its all-time high of 4867 last November 14. On June 15, Ethereum fell to 1012. We will have a lot to say about Bitcoin in this week’s special webinar for our Chinese audience (see announcements below, everyone is welcome to attend).

Crude Oil had a good rally to 123.60 last week, its highest mark since the yearly high of 130.50 on March 7. However, it too fell hard by the end of the week, down to 106.40 on Friday. Gold and Silver were all over the board, first making new major cycle lows, then highs, and then lows again. But another bigger story was in the U.S. Dollar against the Japanese Yen, which soared to 135.50 on June 15, its highest mark in the 21^st century.

Something very big is going on in the financial world, and no one really seems to have a handle on how to navigate this smoothly. It’s just not comforting enough for the president to announce that this is all part of a big transition, as if he expected this. We can see that a major transition is underway. We just can’t see how this is going to end well without a serious recession or worse.

Short-term geocosmics and longer-term thoughts

“We’re not going back to the false promises of trickle-down economics. We’re going forward to an economy that works for everyone.” – President Joe Biden, Twitter feed, June 14, 2022.

Excuse me, Mr. President, but exactly what type of economy works for everyone? Communism? Socialism? Capitalism? One that empowers individuals to be entrepreneurs and job creators to control their own destinies and help others gain control of theirs? Or one that empowers governments to control everyone’s destiny as the leaders of that government see fit?

First off, let’s try to see the potential for positives from last week’s carnage brought about by rising inflation and interest rates. Many markets made new lows at the end of last week, as Venus approached its square to Saturn on Saturday, June 18. One of our basic rules is that any market declining into a hard aspect Venus/Saturn is a candidate for a rally. There is hope in that one aspect underway now.

However, that may be where the natural cosmic positivity ends, for between June 28 and July 2, Neptune changes directions, the Sun squares Jupiter, and Mars will square Pluto. With Neptune, there is this disturbing credibility problem with leaders making misleading and disingenuous assessments about what is happening, and what is going to happen, that no one is buying. With Jupiter, the misleading statements can be exaggerated, further eroding the credibility of the messenger’s authenticity. And with Mars square Pluto, the obsessive death march of Russia through Ukraine is apt to increase in brutality as more human lives are wasted on both sides for a cause that is only one man’s hatred against the rest of the free world he feels has taken advantage of him.

Let’s talk about Pluto and it’s real-life horror stories for a moment before trying to offer a way out of this muck that has almost everyone on edge. 

After last week’s financial slaughter, I am concerned that the longer-term cycle trend in many markets is turning bearish. I am also concerned that the geopolitical trends in the world may also be turning in an ominous direction. Let’s just say that I know I am not alone I feeling the power of Pluto, despite the fact that I will continue to make every effort to remain positive about the future as I have during the past two years of challenge. But there are cracks starting to show about such optimism as I look ahead at the next 2-6 years. I can correlate these worrisome perceptions with principles of astrology. And I can offer constructive suggestions on what can be done to navigate through this period. But I cannot control the powers of the world and those leaders who have a different agenda or intention.

I note the recent huge market sell-offs have been taking place after the Fed speaks and markets rise. For one day. And then these sell-offs happen on the overnight markets, when U.S. markets are closed, which if I didn’t know better (and I don’t), seems very suspicious. It is as if this massive selling is by foreign syndicates who wish the U.S. and other western nations to fall into a recession, and perhaps for the whole world financial system to collapse and then be restructured. The break of critical price support zones now indicates they may succeed (if this suspicion has any merit).

The U.S. is going through its Pluto return, which may also be an indication of a subterfuge, a behind-the- scenes coordinated effort, to bring the U.S. down. Some, like the U.S. president, may find solace in calling this a “transition,” which is a nice way to describe Pluto’s correlation to the current events in financial markets. A more accurate Plutonian description may be that it is an act of intentional destruction. But if so, is the source really external or internal? With Pluto, it could be either. But someone knows the psychological effect of selling big on the overnight markets (Pluto prefers to work in the shadows of darkness) so that investors in the U.S. wake up with huge, demoralizing losses on their positions, and are forced to liquidate (sell), which just amplifies the panic. Somebody is winning from this pattern. For every buyer, there is a seller. In this war, the buyers are losing and the sellers are winning.. Who is selling overnight so heavily? Who is acting out the role of Pluto on the USA’s natal Moon and Pluto in Capricorn?

This also has to do with the issue of abortion (Pluto) and the changing of the law. Pluto, again, is on the U.S. Moon, so decisions are being made which will take the choice away from women (Moon). It will become law – a major change in the current law – which relates to Pluto going into Aquarius in March 2023, over the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction point of 0° Aquarius on December 20, 2020. As mentioned before, that Jupiter/Saturn super-charged degree of 0 Aquarius will now have strong legal implications whenever any planet crosses it, especially an outer planet like Pluto in 2023-2024.

Pluto represents the end of the matter, end of life, termination, an aborted effort, if it is not conducted in a manner that reforms and improves the current situation. It is either reconstruction and reform, or destruction and termination. Pluto does not compromise, and when it passes a major point in a chart, the entity of that chart does not escape unscathed. The U.S., Joe Biden, Donald Trump, the NYSE, the FRB are all experiencing hard aspects from Pluto to sensitive natal planets right now. Either you surrender and start the path of reform, or you feel like the vice is tightening around your neck until you have no choice but to surrender or perish.

There is no room to think you can get away with something unethical. Pluto rules corruption, the exposure of, and in some cases, the redemption of corruption, after an obsessive longing for power and control (Pluto in Capricorn) over others. We see it all around today, and it is, in a way, a classic battle between good and evil, life and death, a future with hope versus one of despair.

But it is not hopeless. This is the waxing phase of Jupiter and Saturn, when decisions made with moderation versus extremism prove to be successful in the end. But with Uranus and Pluto highlighted in 2020-2022, the first two years are proving to be very challenging. You are going to hear more Plutonian calls for reform, like “impeachment,” “treason,” and “betrayal.” But quietly, behind the scenes, you will also see and hear the actions and voices of moderation, Jupiter and Saturn, starting to emerge, as the masses become more and more wary of these calls for extremist actions.

The future may seem very ominous at the moment, and that sense of danger and fear may increase into this autumn when Saturn and Uranus return close to an almost exact waning square again, especially within six-eight weeks of September 21-28, when Jupiter also makes a semi-square to both Saturn and Uranus on their midpoint. During that time, the Sun, Venus, and Mars will also make T-squares to Saturn and Uranus.

It’s a mad, mad world, but with Pluto, it also contains the power to transform in a way that actually leads to real reform and a rebirth that can create an economy and society that grows and really works for everyone. Well, not everyone, as that is impossible. But it will work for those who want to be responsible and work, and who want to grow financially, assuming we do not first fall into a system that prohibits such possibilities.

The future is still worth fighting for. Just ask the people of Ukraine.