Weekly Column: A week of cosmic departures

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In the midst of a record second-quarter rally, (Jeffrey) Gundlach told Yahoo Finance that Wall Street’s recent out performance in the face of surging coronavirus infections was actually driven by what he dubs the “Super 6,” which consists of Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), Netflix (NFLX), and Microsoft (MSFT). “Without the Super 6, there is no earnings growth in the United States stock market. There isn’t any for the past five years. If you take them out, there’s nothing,” Gundlach added. He estimated that earnings in the stock market were the equivalent to where they were in 2016, when the market was a third lower. “So, the fundamentals are completely out of sync with how the market has been manipulated.” – Julia LaRoche, “Why the Dollar and the Tech Rally are ‘Real Risks’ to Investors,” Yahoo Finance, July 6, 2020.

Confidence builds that the country’s economy is shaking off the coronavirus pandemic. The optimism has spurred mainland Chinese stocks to multiyear highs, with the Shanghai Composite rising 16.5% over eight straight sessions of gains through Thursday. – Chong Koh Ping, Xie Yu, and Joanne Chiu, “China Cautions Investors About Market Exuberance,” Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2020.

It was a week of returns and departures.

In China and the U.S., it is the return of irrational exuberance, and it is right on cue with the Sun moving into opposition to Jupiter early next week. This will be followed by the cosmic king of all matters pertaining to irrational exuberance – Jupiter and Neptune – returning for their second pass in a sextile aspect in two weeks. The first passage was on February 20, the exact date of the all-time high in the S&P, from whence all world stock markets came crashing down over the following month. Could it happen again? Well, the cause of that crash was the beginning of COVID-19 hysteria, and it is now returning with a vengeance in the U.S.. Many states and cities (and the country as a whole) are reporting record numbers of daily cases. The curve is not bending the right way here.

This is also a week of cosmic departures. Mercury retrograde, the “Trickster,” ends its current cycle and resumes its direct motion this Sunday, July 12. This was a particularly quirky period, with signs of divergences across the world. But for the next few weeks, issues are likely to become clearer – not necessarily easier or better, but clearer. We know the score and realize the fight is not over.

In Europe, the Netherlands AEX rallied to its highest mark on Monday, July 6 since the low of the crash in mid-March. The equity markets of German, England, and Switzerland made secondary highs then, but not new ones, for cases of intermarket bearish divergence. All declined into the end of the week.

In Asia and the Pacific Rim, the big story was China, where the Shanghai Composite continued its explosive rally to 3457 on Thursday, July 9, its highest level since February 2018. The Hang Seng and Indian Nifty indices rallied to their highest mark since the crash lows of March. But in Japan and Australia, the rallies were modest and peaked early in the week, followed by declines into the end of the week, for yet another example of intermarket bearish divergence.

The American indices also exhibited further cases of intermarket bearish divergence. The NASDAQ Composite soared to another new all-time high on Friday, July 10. The Bovespa of Brazil rallied to a new post-crash high as well on July 9. But the Dow Jones Industrial Average remained well off its post-crash high recorded back on June 8. It rallied or fell over 300 points on four of the five days last week, with no two consecutive days up or down. The Trickster was in classical whipsaw form, flashing first a technical buy signal and then immediately negating that for a technical sell signal, back and forth all week. His departure this week will be a cause for celebration to many, although the effects of his mishmash on financial markets may linger on for up to four days afterwards.

Gold and Silver had excellent weeks. Gold continued its meteoric rise to 1829.80 on July 8, its highest prices since September 19, 2011. Silver soared to 19.44, its highest price since September 4, 2019 when it reached 19.75. This is what happens when interest rates are zero and instability in world conditions persist, with the threat of new explosions or implosions developing (Mars is now in Aries).

All in all, it was a wild and crazy week, consistent with both the nature of Mercury ending its retrograde cycle, and the forthcoming triple solar oppositions of next week.

Short-term geocosmics

In both decisions, the courts rejected arguments from President Trump’s lawyers and the Justice Department that a president has immunity and privileges that put him completely beyond the reach of authorities seeking his documents or testimony. – Bryon Tau, “Ruling Cast Light on the Limits of Presidential Power,” Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2020.

It wasn’t a good week for President Trump, as the Supreme Court essentially ruled that he is not above the law while in office. And this closely followed excerpts from a new book to be released this week by his niece, Dr. Mary Trump (Psychologist), in which she reveals scores of disturbing revelations about the president’s character, family, and past. He tried to keep the book from being released, but he lost that battle too. He is not accustomed to losing and he lost several important battles last week. This is all related to the transit of Pluto in opposition to President Trump’s natal Venus and Saturn (damaging revelations about one’s past), as well as transiting Neptune forming a T-Square to his natal Sun and Moon (scandal). In the past, he has been to able to weather such storms. But this time Pluto is involved, and as stated many times before, no one escapes Pluto unscathed and untouched. Last week was a serious blow.

Yet, despite the personal setbacks for the president, the stock market didn’t crash, and the economic gains since the mid-March crash didn’t reverse– for now. That curve, however, could begin to bend with geocosmic signatures approaching the next two weeks.

The most important cosmic pattern looming ahead may be the triple solar oppositions of July 14-20. This is when the Sun will first form an opposition to Jupiter (July 14), followed by its opposition to Pluto (July 15), and finally its opposition to Saturn on the new moon of July 20. Each are Level 1 geocosmic signatures, which represent the highest correlation to primary or greater cycles within 10 trading days. In fact, the Sun/Jupiter and Sun/Saturn oppositions have a 50% historical rate of frequency to 50-week or greater cycles. That is a very high correlation of solar-planetary pair cycles to market cycles of this length. It means there is a chance that an important crest (or secondary crest) is now or may soon be forming.

The possibility of a sharp reversal in both the stock market and economy are also suggested in other charts. For instance, the Jupiter/Pluto/Saturn stellium in late Capricorn is making a T-square to the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction, opposite Saturn, in the New York Stock Exchange chart (“Buttonwood chart” of May 17, 1792). The transiting Sun joins this set up to form a Cardinal Grand Square in the next week. And in August, Mars will be squaring these same Capricorn stellium planets off and on through the end of the year. It’s like the wick of a stick of dynamic has been ignited and it may be just a matter of time before something explodes – unless someone can figure how to put the flame out first.

The “hero” in this cosmic drama may be Neptune, which is in sextile to Jupiter into mid-October, which furthermore means it can soften the blow of these other planets in hard aspect to Saturn and Pluto as well.

So, how does Neptune put out the threat of an explosion? Through behaviors that are the opposite of the fiery Sun and Mars triggering the Capricorn stellium planets. This will be interesting, because the explosion is more likely when the leader (Sun and Mars) loses control and threatens all those around him. The threat of an explosion is reduced when the leader exhibits Neptunian qualities, which include empathy, understanding, graciousness, and gentleness. These are not the defining qualities of the President, especially when he is under attack and fighting off one investigation after another. It looks like this will be a very difficult election season for Mr. Trump. All Joe Biden has to do is appear calm, understanding, and present himself as a unifier, someone who won’t add to the divisiveness of this country. Contrary to the comments of most political pundits, he may not have to have a plan or exhibit any great vision of what he will do in office. All he has to do is exhibit a contrast in character. Unlike in the past, I don’t think this election will be as much about the economy as people think. Nor will it be about policies and platforms. It may be more about the stress of the collective and who can reduce it. That’s what Mars in Aries, square to Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn suggests. No stress, no loss.

But back to the markets. This is an important week astrologically. In fact, it is important for the next two weeks. Longer-term we are now also in a Martian period as of June 27 (Mars in Aries). It will be very active once it starts its square to the Capricorn stellium planets on August 4, which will remain in effect through the end of the year. With Mars, you get a lot of action and price movement in financial markets. As a trader, you are going to love this type of activity. There are likely to be many sharp moves that will transpire. The cosmos will give us a glimpse of that over these next ten days. This is a favorable time to those who like action, but a dangerous time to those who are reckless.