The German DAX flashed a warning sign on Friday

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"We are not concerned about a near-term financial crisis in Italy, but we are concerned that Italy might face a serious debt crisis when we hit the next recession maybe in 2021, 2022," Carsten Hesse, European economist at Berenberg told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Friday. – Sylvia Amaro, “Anti-Establishment Parties Triumph in Italian Battle Over Budget Deficit,” www.cnbc.com, September 28, 2018.

“If he (Musk) is barred from acting in ways that are central to the company’s success, then the shareholders of Tesla wind up being the largest victims of the process,” says Joseph Grundfest, a Stanford Law School professor and former SEC commissioner. – Dave Michaels, Tim Higgins, and Michael Rapoport, “SEC Sues to Oust Musk From Tesla Over Tweets,” Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2018.

The Ford-Kavanaugh hearing consumed most of Thursday, and unsurprisingly we learned nothing from the spectacle. Christine Ford remains unable to marshal any evidence for her claim of sexual assault. Brett Kavanaugh continues to deny the charge…” – Kimberley Strassel, “The Kavanaugh Stakes,” Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2018.

It was a cardinal full-moon-square-Saturn week, and typical of many full moons, it was a dramatic time. Typical of Saturn, the drama was highlighted in governments around the world. Italy decided to lift its budget deficit target, which in turn roiled currency markets and caused the Euro to drop sharply. The SEC charge against Tesla CEO Elon Musk caused the company’s stock price to drop sharply, nearly 13%, immediately after the SEC announcement. The hearing on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has both riveted this nation and exposed its raw divide.

Yet, in spite of these dramatic events, most of the world’s stock markets continued to advance higher.

In Europe, stock indices continued up from their lows of September 7-11 (Saturn turned direct then) for most of the week. There are, so far, only corrective rallies, and they are still far off their recent yearly highs. The German DAX flashed a warning sign on Friday, as it plunged triple digits after a 2- week rally that fizzled out on Thursday, September 27.

In the Far East and Pacific Rim, it was a mixed story. The Japanese Nikkei soared to its highest level since November 1991, but the Indian Nifty market plunged to its lowest level since July 9. The other equity markets in the region were up last week, and next to the Nikkei, the most notable and interesting advance was in the Chinese Shanghai Composite index, which reached an 8-week high. In the process, it broke out of a downward channel chart formation, which has bullish implications, in spite of the heavy tariff fees now taking effect on their products from the USA leadership.

The USA markets were mixed too, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P mildly down from their all-time highs of a week earlier, on September 21, But the NASDAQ was up, though not to a new all-time high. Thus, intermarket bearish divergence continues in the USA. In South America, Brazils’ Bovespa was up, but the bigger story was in Argentina, where its Merval index soared to a new all-time high.

As mentioned earlier, the decision by Italy’s government to increase its debt and deficit burden caused the Euro to sell off late in the week, after first making a new 3-month high on Monday, September 24. This caused a further strengthening of the US Dollar, which exploded to a new high against the Japanese Yen for the year 2018. As might be expected, a stronger dollar was not supportive to Gold prices, which fell to a new 6-week low of 1184 early Friday before bouncing right back up later in the day. It is still holding well above its low of 1167 on August 16. At the same time Gold was falling to a new six-week low, Silver was rallying to a new 4-week high, which illustrates the continuing examples of intermarket divergence between various markets in the world today.

The world and its financial, commodity, and currency markets are not in synch. For example, as the Dollar gets stronger, you would expect commodities to fall in price. Yet, last week witnessed Soybeans rallying to their highest level in 5 weeks, and Live Cattle to its highest level in five months, along with the strong move up in Silver. Soybeans and Silver will be the focus of our Autumn webinar coming up next week, October 4 (see Announcements below). If you are interested in these and other markets, we welcome you to sign up now.

SHORT-TERM GEOCOSMICS AND LONGER-TERM MUNDANE THOUGHTS

The drama unleashed in world governments (including the USA) last week was not solely a correlation to the full moon in a T-square aspect to Saturn. In fact, if you placed that transiting T-square in the natal chart of the USA, you would see that it formed a grand cardinal square to the USA’s Venus/Jupiter conjunction in the 9th house of laws, immigration, foreign affairs, and world trade, according to the chart we use (July 2, 1776, 11:50 AM, Philadelphia). I don’t know how much more accurate a chart can be in detailing the events of last week – and all year - that transpired in the United States. Not only does the 9th house rule these matters, but so does Jupiter. On top of that, Venus rules this chart (Libra rising), and the role of women in society (Venus) was front and center. Venus and its ruling sign of Libra also pertain to the laws of the land, especially when Saturn is involved. Transiting Saturn has been sitting in opposition to the USA’s natal Venus and Jupiter all year. This not only corresponds to the pressure put on women to defend themselves against sexual misconduct by men – and men to defend themselves against sexual predation allegations made against them by women (Venus is often a “he said/she said” divide) – but in opposition to Jupiter, it also describes the tensions surrounding tariffs and the threat of escalating trade disputes that can (and are) disrupting normal trade practices. It also describes the polarity regarding attaining a sensible immigration policy in the USA, although this same challenge afflicts countries in other parts of the world today as well.

It is interesting that the “Me Too” movement by women regarding sexual harassment and misconduct started about one year ago, when Jupiter was just about in the same degree of Scorpio (sex) as it is right now. Furthermore, Venus (women) will turn retrograde this week, October 5, in Scorpio. The drama is not over yet, but may be reaching a peak shortly.

In financial markets, Venus rules money and currency values. Scorpio is a sign that also rules financial matters, most notably debt. It is a time when central banks often make surprising announcements regarding their monetary and interest rate policies, and this can have a very sharp affect upon currency prices, which in turn can significantly affect both stock and commodity prices. Thus, it is no surprise that in the research reported in The Ultimate Book on Stock Market Timing, Volume 3: Geocosmic Correlations to Trading Cycles, it was seen that this planetary station has one of the highest correlations to primary or greater cycles in the U.S. stock market, given an orb of 12 trading days. We are in that time band now, and the center of it is Friday, October 5. Pay attention, because Venus rules values (money) and relationships. Both parts of one’s life may be about to undergo a substantive change. Both areas will certainly continue to be highlighted this week and the next, according to geocosmic studies, as we are already witnessing via today’s headlines. In fact, given that Venus is now stationary and about to turn retrograde in Scorpio on October 5, and given the Senate has just decided to delay the vote on Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme  Court for another week, the probabilities of what had earlier in the week appeared to be a certainty, is now likely to be a rejection, a total turn around.