Weekly column: Sun in Scorpio reveals debt, scandal, and global market retrenchment

Review

“The ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ fund, an ETF that magnifies bearish bets on the Nasdaq, recorded more than $12 billion of inflows yesterday, the largest daily haul on record, according to FactSet and Dow Jones Market Data going back to 2010. This fund provides leveraged exposure to tech stocks falling. For example, if the Nasdaq falls 1%, the SQQQ fund might rise around 3%.”

—Gunjan Banerji, “There Was a Stampede Into This Bearish Tech Fund Yesterday,” The Wall Street Journal, November 21, 2025.

This week, the cosmic spotlight was on the subterranean undercurrents of the financial world, with the Sun in Scorpio, and the Moon joining it there for a lunation. The Moon does not like Scorpio, losing dignity in the sign of its fall. This impacts human emotions, and we saw this in the form of a sharp selloff across most markets. The New Moon in Scorpio pulled back the curtain on deeper, hidden problems: mounting debt, hidden imbalances in the tech-credit complex, sovereign bonds under pressure, and the UK high court ruling against BHP (the world’s largest mining company) for Brazil’s 2015 dam disaster.

The grand trine between the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn-Neptune, held in the place all week, helped elevate the mood, inviting us to consider bold visions of growth, renewal, and peace. A detailed U.S. peace plan was shared with Ukraine, as Moscow signaled its willingness for talks. The week ended, as the Sun-Uranus opposition jolted markets and a magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit Bangladesh.

All three US stock markets closed down this week, all within the orb of a primary cycle and starting to show signs of bullish oscillator divergence. Has the low formed? In the October overview section of the MMA Cycles Plus reports I wrote, “…as the Sun enters Scorpio later in the month, bullish momentum in equities and precious metals may wane. Scorpio season often coincides with rising volatility, a sharper focus on debt, credit, and hidden risks, and an uptick in scandals or crises that unsettle investor psychology. Suspicion, fear, and anxiety tend to peak here, making markets more reactive and prone to sudden reversals.” Friday was the last day of this transit, as the Sun entered the more optimistic and exuberant sign of Sagittarius. It is possible we may have just seen the tech-heavy NASDAQ and the crypto markets form their respective primary cycle troughs, as the Sun opposed Uranus, the planet that rules over these assets.

We have seen the steepest decline in most markets since the low that formed in April. This was reflected globally with all indices dropping off their respective ATHs as the Sun transited Scorpio; Japan’s Nikkei fell 8.4% in 3 weeks, the UK’s FTSE fell 5.1% in a week, the German DAX fell 7.4% in 6 weeks, and the Australian ASX 200 fell 7.8% over 4 weeks. We may yet see bullish intermarket divergence once the momentum shifts. We saw a similar picture across the BRICS economies; with China’s SSE index dropping 4.9% in a week, Brazil’s Bovespa index dropping 3.1% over a week, South Africa’s JSE 7% over a week, and Argentina’s Merval 13.4% over 2 weeks. The only outlier was India’s Nifty, which was up for the week and testing its ATH of September 2024.

The precious metals were undecided, given the mixed signals under Mercury retrograde. Bitcoin and Ethereum remain within a bearish pattern, putting in new lows in the time band for a primary cycle trough. Both assets have very likely formed their respective 4-year crests, which makes me nervous about the stock markets. Bear in mind that Bitcoin formed its 4-year crest in November of 2021, the same month that the NASDAQ formed its 2- or 3-year crest. Both assets formed a new ATH in October of 2025. This is an important correlation worth tracking closely.

Short-term geocosmics

“Japan’s cabinet has approved $135 billion of stimulus to help households cope with rising living costs and boost economic growth, firing off the first fiscal salvo under new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The Takaichi administration on Friday signed off on the package totaling 21.3 trillion yen, equivalent to $135.27 billion.”

—Megumi Fujikawa, “Japan Approves $135 Billion Stimulus Shot to Help Households, Economy,” The Wall Street Journal, November 21, 2025.

With the grand trine in water signs, news of the Japanese stimulus was the type of event I was anticipating this week. With all the planets in water signs, the Sun-Uranus opposition at the end of the week was always going to bring about sudden and unexpected news concerning natural disasters, crashes, or rash decisions. We saw this manifest as:

• Storm Claudia batters Europe: The storm caused days of heavy rain and flooding (Jupiter-Neptune) in Portugal and neighboring Spain, and later inundated southeastern Wales.
• S. launches Operation Southern Spear against narco‑terrorists: The operation, led by Joint Task Force Southern Spear (trine), deploys the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (Jupiter-Neptune) and aims to interdict drug‑smuggling vessels (Neptune).
• Emirates orders 65 Boeing 777‑9 jets valued at $38 billion: Both the large jets and the value involved resonate the traits of Jupiter.
• COP30 climate summit (Belém, Brazil) fire disruption: The summit is a great manifestation of the cooperation represented within the grand trine. Yet fire-causing disruption is a manifestation of the Sun-Uranus opposition.
• Dubai Airshow 2025 Indian fighter jet crash: Sun-Uranus opposition often results in violent accidents.
• Iran’s IRGC seized a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz: This is the Sun-Uranus opposition rash event occurring in international waters (water sign trine).

Over the coming week, as the Sun leaves the grand trine, it will pass the torch onto Venus, the planet of peace and prosperity, to reignite the trine with Jupiter and Saturn- Neptune. This bodes well for potential peace talks and cooperation over the Russia-Ukraine war.

We have two powerful geocosmic signatures coming up: Saturn’s station direct on November 27, and the Venus-Uranus opposition on November 29. We may see a case of intermarket bullish divergence with some markets forming their trough last week, and others forming them next week. This would be a great set-up for buying the dip.

As I write, the Sun is preparing to leave Scorpio’s darker terrain, and a sense of renewed optimism seems to be breaking through in the markets, in geopolitics, and in the atmosphere itself. Saadi’s Bustan (The Orchard) captures this turning from shadow to light, the point that we in MMA pride ourselves on:

“When every remedy and clever plan had failed,

the wise man rose in humility and said:

 O Lord! By Your grace my hope grows strong

that what is difficult may become easy.

 Do not close the door of hope, my friend,

for fortune often arrives suddenly from that very place.

 This anxious state will not remain forever;

in a single moment the throne of destiny can change.

 The dark night will, in the end, become day;

no state of sorrow or suffering lasts forever.”