Last week witnessed a solar eclipse in the first degree of Sagittarius, while Venus was transiting through Sagittarius (November 3-29), and it was a Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. All of these factors combined to bring out a very Sagittarian influence on the markets and with the economy. Sagittarius is very optimistic and confident. Things looked better economically, and various reports supported this view. So, stock markets rose.

The next two weeks could witness another change in this optimistic, hopeful view of the future. Oh, I think the economy will do just fine over the next few months and probably right into late summer 2004. But everything did get real good real quick, and a stock market correction is still due. And it could happen in the next few days coming up. I know I have said this before, in fact many times, since late August. And each time over these past 3 months, the decline has just corrective in nature. There still has been no 4-12 week decline, and maybe there won’t be, as we beginning to run out of time for this cycle.

And then again, maybe there will be that decline suggested by historical cycles in the U.S. stock market. The end of this time band for the 50-week cycle normally ends by the week of December 19 (73% rate of frequency). But if we extend it to January 23, we get into the 90% percentile rate of frequency for that low to occur. So, time is drawing near, but it is still possible.

This coming week finds Venus entering into the more sobering sign of Capricorn, November 29-December 22. This is quite the opposite of the buoyant and optimistic, confident, Sagittarius sign of the prior 4 weeks. And on December 6, Venus will square Saturn, ruler of Capricorn, followed by the full moon, which forms a T-square with Jupiter and Pluto, December 8-12. This first half of December could find increasingly more worrisome economic concerns as the week progresses. The rule with Venus-Saturn aspects is this: any market that has been in a bull market that is making a one or two week corrective decline into this aspect should be bought. This is especially true if it happens in markets ruled by Venus, like sugar, soybeans, and stocks. It can also work with regard to gold, a “storage” (Taurus) of value. If any market is making a 1-2 week decline into late this week, early next week, it may represent a favorable buying opportunity.

World stock markets were mostly higher last week. In Europe, the London FTSE made a new yearly high on Wednesday at 4423.60. But then it sold off into Friday, closing at 4342. In the process, this new high was not supported by higher oscillator readings, which suggests underlying weakness. No other markets we track made new yearly highs, which is a type of bearish divergence itself, known as intermarket bearish divergence. The German Dax index came within 30 points of its yearly high when it reached 3786.40 on Wednesday. It still closed at a relatively strong 3746. The Netherlands AEX index rallied to 337.80 on Wednesday, still off from its double top of 344.30 on September 4 and 9. The Swiss stock index only rose to 5346 on Tuesday, well off its high of 5445 recorded back on September 19.

In the Far East, the excitement remains with the Chinese stock market, as indicated by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index. After falling to a low of 11662 on November 21, prices shot up again late last week, to 12,340 by Friday. This is just slightly below the yearly high of 12,537 recorded back on November 4. China still looks like the place to buy stocks. The Japanese Nikkei also performed fairly well last week, closing at 10,101 after falling to a multi8-week low of 9684 back on November 20. If that wasn’t the primary cycle trough, then one is due anytime in the next 3 weeks. The All Ordinaries of Australia still struggled last week, only rising to 3207 on Wednesday, which is well below its yearly high of 3317 recorded on October 22. The market closed at 3195, and still looks weak on the daily chart.

In America, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite posted nice rallies, achieving their highs of the week on Friday, near the close. Still, bit markets are well off their yearly highs posted back on November 7. Thus, as we look at all of these world stock indices, we note that the yearly highs in almost all of them occurred between September 4-November 7. This means are original targets for 50-week cycle crests are still in effect for most world indices. Yet we also note that serous declines have not yet unfolded in most, leaving our forecast for an 8-20% decline still in doubt. If we don’t break hard in the next two weeks, then I think it may not happen. It will be one of those 6% times in the past 75 years that the 50-week cycle has not unfolded in the normal time frame, with the normal range of decline.

Two other markets deserve notice for their activity last week. The Euro recorded a new all-time high on Friday, and Gold made a new 7-year high on Wednesday, its last trading day of last week. For the first time since 1996, Gold traded briefly above 400. The stock market may be dismissing the potentially dangerous inflationary reports on the economy and the political situation in the U.S.A. But the precious metals and currency markets are quite aware of the possibility, and therefore they probably offer better long-term investment opportunities than stocks. They may also be more realistic about what is really occurring in today’s world economy.

But for now, all looks fine for a good holiday season, at least from a consumer-spending viewpoint. Consumers will likely be buying this season, more than they have in recent years.

For those who are interested, the Forecasts for 2004 book is now completed. It is at the printer’s and will be ready for shipment on December 15. If you wish to pre-order this book and get it before Christmas, please go to our web site at www.mmacycles.com. It should be an interesting year, and there is a great deal of information (forecasts) on the 2004 U.S.A. presidential election, as well as various stock and financial markets.

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.

No guarantee as to the accuracy of this report is being made here. Any decisions in financial markets are solely the responsibility of the reader, and neither the author nor the publishers assume any responsibility at all for those individual decisions. Reader should understand that futures and options trading are considered high risk.