Many stock markets of the world remained in congestion between the lows of May 17, when Venus began its current retrograde motion, and the highs of June 8, when the rare phenomenon of Venus transiting across the face of the Sun, took place. Some gave signs that they were breaking out to the upside of the congestion area, however, as in the case of the Australian All Ordinaries and the Dow Jones Industrial Average indices. As mentioned in several of these recent columns, any market that makes a significant cycle low near the time of Venus turning retrograde has a high probability of making a significant cycle crest within ten trading days of the time Venus ends that retrograde motion. Venus will turn direct June 30, which is only a few days away.

In Europe, The German DAX index reached a weekly high of 4018.60 on Thursday, which is down slightly from its post-May 17 high of 4040.77 achieved on June 8 (Venus transit Sun day). The low of the week was 3933.12 on Tuesday, and it closed the week at 3999.79. Technically it looks neutral now. The Swiss Stock index performed similarly, with the range of the week between 5599.30 (Monday) and 5729.10 (Thursday). Again, the high was below the June 7-8 high of 5755.70, and the low was well above the May 17 low. The close was 5693.90, very much in a congestion zone. However, it is interesting to note that on Friday, there was unusually huge volume in the Swiss index, which may portend a very big move shortly. The London FTSE index, on the other hand, looked considerably more positive, reaching 4510.50 on Friday, which is very close to the June 8 high of 4515.20. And the Netherlands AEX closed the week at 343.38, just slightly off the weekly high on Thursday at 343.94. This was also just slightly off the high of June 8, which was 344.36. In both the FTSE and AEX, it appears that prices could make new post-May 17 highs this coming week.

The All Ordinaries index of Australia continues to be the stellar performer of all the world stock indices that we track. On Friday it soared to another new all-time high, reaching 3526.90, before closing the week nearby at 3523.30. The Nikkei Index of Japan made a new post-May 17 high on Monday and Wednesday when it achieved 11,672 and 11,673 respectively. But then it sold off to 11,310 on Friday, before closing the week at 11,382. A similar path followed in Hong Kong where the Hang Seng topped out at 12,538 on Monday, and then sold off to 11,788 on Friday. It settled the week at 11,855, but both indices in Japan and Hong Kong look ready to fall lower.

In America, the Dow Jones Industrial Average made a new post-May 17 high on Friday at 10,437.90, but it couldn’t close above 10,400, settling back to 10,391.60. The NASDAQ Composite, however, stayed in congestion with a weekly range of 1963.50 on Monday and 2006.60 on Tuesday. That high was still below June 8, when prices touched 2023.50. The Composite closed the week at 1986.70. And the Argentina Merval Index looked very interesting, with the completion of a double bottom on Tuesday to the May 17 low, as prices dipped to 853.30. But then in spectacular fashion typical of double bottoms, the Merval soared to close near the weekly highs at 951.17. Here, like in the U.S. and European indices, and perhaps also in some of the Far Eastern markets, it appears that stock prices could continue higher into June 30. In fact, we are already within the time band of ten trading days either side of Venus turning direct for this high. And, as we see, some indices are already making new highs from the lows of May 17, thus confirming our prior forecasts. I don’t think the move up is over in most of these indices, although the markets of both Japan and Hong Kong may be saying otherwise.

Our attention continues to be focused on the ten trading days surrounding June 30 when Venus ends its retrograde motion. More specifically, it is focused on the three trading days either side of June 29, a time band which starts this Thursday (June 24-July 2). That is because June 29 is the midpoint of two Level 1 signatures coming up. These are the Sun trine Uranus, June 28, and of course the Venus direct date of June 30. The Sun in waxing trine to Uranus has a 69% correspondence to primary or greater cycles in the U.S. stock indices within an orb of 12 trading days, as reported in The Ultimate Book on Stock Market Timing Volume 3: Geocosmic Correlations to Trading Cycles. Venus direct dates have a 73% correlation to primary or greater cycles within an orb of 10 trading days. The overlap of these two time bands covers June 15-July 17, a period which we are now into. Since this is not a time band for a primary or greater cycle trough, it has been my opinion that this will instead coincide with a primary or greater cycle crest. And indeed, the DJIA (and other world indices) are rallying to new highs in this time frame already.

So what will happen afterwards? Well, one would naturally anticipate that these same indices will fall, and probably fall hard. But for how long is an open question. Based on cycle studies, they could fall hard for several weeks, even months, and even years. Based on our knowledge of Presidential election years in which an incumbent is running again, and the economy is doing well, one might think the decline may be sharp but short-lasting, perhaps only taking 1-3 weeks to complete, before another rally that would at least test the highs that are forming now. Unfortunately astrology does not answer this question for us. It only says that the high forming during this current time band is one of the possible times from which a new prolonged bear market may resume. As subscribers to my market letters know, my bias is that the long-term bull market ended with the all-time highs in 2000, and the long-term bear market will continue in to 2007-2010. But they also know that a shorter-term 4-year cycle may still be pointed up, and due to end in 2004-2005. Once that 4-year cycle top is in, then the 4-, 18-, 36-, and 72-year cycles will all be pointed down into the end of this decade. So identifying the top of this current 4-year cycle is very important to our financial health. And one of the possible times in 2004-2005 that we have picked as a possibility for this last crest (the 4-year cycle crest) is happening right now, in June-July 2004.

Disclaimer and statement of purpose: The purpose of this column is not to predict the future movement of various financial markets. However, that is the purpose of the MMA (Merriman Market Analyst) subscription services. This column is not a subscription service. It is a free service, except in those cases where a fee may be assessed to cover the cost of translating this column from English into a non-English language. This weekly report is written with the intent to educate the reader on the relationship between astrological factors and collective human activities as they are happening. In this regard, this report will oftentimes report what happened in various stock and financial markets throughout the world in the past week, and discuss that movement in light of the geocosmic signatures that were in effect. It will then identify the geocosmic factors that will be in effect in the next week, or even month, or even years, and the author’s understanding of how these signatures will likely affect human activity in the times to come. The author (Merriman) will do this from a perspective of a cycle’s analyst looking at the military, political, economic, and even financial markets of the world. It is possible that some forecasts will be made based on these factors. However, the primary goal is to both educate and alert the reader as to the psychological climate we are in, from an astrological perspective. The hope is that it will help the reader understand these psychological dynamics that underlie (or coincide with) the news events and hence financial markets of the day.

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