In Europe, the star last week was the London FTSE Index

REVIEW AND PREVIEW

The hardest thing about a nice, long, holiday break is that you have to come bac and find the rhythm again. But all in all, it’s still there with a little effort and review. So, as I wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year. Let’s review the last few days of 2017 from the geocosmic viewpoint, and prepare for what promises to be an exciting 2018.

World equity markets had mostly splendid year as the world economy showed its greatest strength since the Great Recession of 2007-2009, with many indices ending the year at all-time or multi-year highs, and sign of higher levels to come this year.

In Asia and the Pacific Rim, India’s Nifty Index made a new all-time on December 27, the last week of the year. Australia’s All Ords ASX Index soared to 6093 on Friday, its highest mar since January 89, 2008. The Hang Seng Index of Hing Kong touched 2997 on Friday, December 29, approaching its yearly high of 30,199 on November 22, and not that far away from its all-time high of 31,958 made in October 2007. Japan’s Nikkei Index is struggling to regain its footing after making a 25-year high of 23,282 on November 9, bit its holding above 22,000 too on declines since then. China’s Shanghai Index has also struggled since mid-November’s high of 3450, but lie the Nikkei, it hasn’t collapsed much either since then.

In Europe, the star last week was the London FTSE Index, which exploded on Friday, December 29, to a new all-time high of 7697. So much for the idea that Brexit would destroy the British financial structure. The Brits stock market is doing just fine, much better than most expected 18 months ago. It is the other European markets that are suffering as of late. Following its all-time high of 13,525 on November 7, the German DAX has slumped, closing the year below 13,000 and near its 12,810 half-primary cycle low of December 1, which was its lowest level since September. Likewise, the Netherlands AEX index has fallen too since its multi-year high of 557.43 on November 7 and a double top at 555.12 on December 19. On Friday, it closed near the low of the day, and its lowest level in three weeks. Zurich’s SMI index is holding up fairly well since making a 28-month high on December 19 at 7599.

New all-time highs were registered in the America’s late last week in the S&P nearby futures, and Argentina’s Merval Index. Brazil’s Bovespa also showed signs of strength late last week as it hit 78,436, within sight of its all-time high of 789024 made on October 5. However, in the USA, the major indices all sold off into the close on Friday, with signs of intermarket bearish divergence, as the DJIA and NASDAQ did not make new all-times like the S&P futures did. All ended up closing with a key reversal down signal, in a three-star geocosmic critical reversal date (CRD) time zone.

Gold, Silver, the Euro, and crude oil all ended the year on nice rallies. Gold closed the week at 1305, up nicely from its primary cycle trough of 1238.30 made on December 12. Silver challenged 17.20 on Friday, its highest level in a month, and well off its low of 15.63 made on December 12. The Euro currency closed near 1.2000, in sight of its yearly high at 1.2092 made on September 8, further adding to our view that the long-term 16.5-year cycle in the U.S. Dollar topped out one year ago, on January 3, 2017, which was forecasted in our two prior Forecast Books well ahead of time.  Crude oil soared to 60.51 on the last day of trading, Friday, December 29, 2017, which is a price that has not been seen since June 2015. This too validates our forecast made in prior Forecast Books and by Nitin Bhandari, our crude oil analyst, at the MMA September 2015 investment conference that crude oil would complete a 9- and even 18-year cycle low while Saturn was in square aspect to Neptune in 2016. The low was on February 11, 2016, at 26.05. Attendees of that event have benefited from the 130% gain in that time.       

 

SHORT-TERM GEOCOSMICS AND LONGER-TERM THOUGHTS

The new all-time highs in the S&P on Dec 29 and the DJIA on December 15 fits with our last time band for an important turn in U.S. stock markets as given in the previous year’s Forecast 2017 Book, which was December 10, 2017-January 14, 2018. Here we are.

As stated in our last column, “We are in the midst of a powerful time band, December 16-January 14, containing 12 geocosmic signatures with correlations to reversals in financial markets. The midpoint is right around the turn of the year. Included in this cluster, in addition to the Sun/Saturn conjunction of December 21, is Mercury turning direct (December 23), Venus conjunct Saturn (December 25), Uranus turning direct (January 2), and both the Sun and Venus conjunct Pluto and squaring Uranus (January 9-14). Any one of these could coincide with a reversal in a financial market. All of them together, in a short span of time, increases the probability of a cycle culmination and reversal. With Uranus so prevalent, we cannot rule out the possibility of new record highs in some markets…” Not bad for a forecast based on these powerful geocosmic signatures. So, we start the year right in the middle of this powerful time band, with Uranus changing directions on January 3, the second trading day of the year.

Coming up will be Mars conjunct Jupiter in Scorpio on January 6, which is usually positive for stocks, but not so positive for metals. It will be interesting to observe whether Gold and Silver pull bac, because Mars in Scorpio is mostly bullish for Gold, as we have witnessed (and forecasted) since its entrance into Scorpio on December 9. It still has time to go higher before it reaches the degrees in Scorpio where crest usually unfold.

We will also be ready for the Sun/Venus conjunction, which will form a powerful translation to the Uranus/Pluto square. This translation will be in force January 9-14, and has the potential to correspond to a major market reversal, or – since Uranus is involved – a breakout of important support or resistance in certain financial markets that re nearby to long-term support and resistance.

Longer-term, we also note that the Sun/Saturn ingress into Capricorn on the winter solstice of December 20-21 has correlated with major events that will likely have long-term consequences on the world and national economy. This is the crux of “The Great Reset” that we identified in both the 2017 and 2018 editions of the annual Forecast Book. True to form, the USA Congress and White House signed into law its new and highly anticipated tax reform package. This promises to be a great boon to US corporations -large and small – but falls quite short of the kind of tax relief that promised to the middle and lower classes. So, its good for business, but not directly so great in and of itself for the average person. In any event, we are now entering a New Era, “Great Reset” of the world financial and political systems, where there will be a “new normal” before a “new abnormal” arises by the time Saturn leaves Capricorn (with Jupiter) in late 2020.

These are exciting time, and I am looking forward to an incredible 2018. I hope you are too, and that the year brings many opportunities and insights to everyone.

 

ON A MORE PERSONAL NOTE…

I am going to start adding Bitcoin to our analysis in the MMA full weekly subscription reports, as well as the weekly MMA Currency Report. I may not have recommendations for a while, for this is a learning curve for me. I look forward to catching up on this remarkable development in the currencies world, and I got quite an education in this subject on my recent trip to “The Garden of Eden” in Maui, Hawaii. Than you to my host, Alan Bradbury, a reader of my reports, Grammy-nominated musician, excellent astrologer, and long-time friend.