This past week, November 30, began the first of three passages of Jupiter in a waning trine to Neptune in air signs. The second passage will take place on March 14, 2005 (the retrograde Jupiter period), and the third and final passage will take place on August 17, 2005, as the ISAR 2005 biennial conference begins (www.isarastrology.com). In the study of astrology, this signature would be considered a very favorable, euphoric, sociable, philosophical, spiritual, romantic, and exciting psychological principle. It can also be conducive for world peace efforts. In air signs, it favors exchange of thoughts that are mutually stimulating.

Jupiter-Neptune is a 13-year planetary-pair cycle. It doesn’t always happen in a 3-passage series. In most cases it is a single passage event, as was the case on August 9, 1992, August 3, 1979, and August 2, 1966. Each of those periods coincided with the end of long-term cycles in U.S. stocks (and other markets) within two months. The 1966 instance was nearby to the end of 4-year cycle trough in U.S. stocks on October 10, 1966, ending an 8-month decline. The 1979 instance coincided with the double top to a 22.5-month cycle crest on October 5. And the 1992 instance also coincided with a 22.5-month cycle crest on October 5. In each case, the single passage aspect of this 13-year planetary-pair cycle unfolded in August, and the trend of the market cycle ended October 5-10, two months later. In the current case, we also have a passage that unfolds in August, 2005, 13 years after the prior instance. This would suggest something of significance in the U.S. stock market could culminate in October 2005, depending on what the trend is into that period.

But it is not only the U.S. stock market that seems to correlate with this signature. In August 1992, the Japanese Nikkei stock index completed a nine-year cycle trough at 14,194, down a whopping 63.5% from the all-time high of 38,957 made on December 29, 1989. August 1992 was also just 6 months before the 18-year cycle trough in Silver, and 8.5-month cycle low in Gold. And if we go back to the passage before that, in August 1979, we will note that it was just 5 months prior to the all-time high in Gold and Silver, when they soared to $850.00 and 50.00 respectively in January 1980. The end of long-term cycle trends can be noted in various currency and grain markets very close in time to the 1992 and 1979 Jupiter-Neptune instances too. The point is that this signature appears to have a strong correlation to the end of trends in many financial markets, within 6 months. The last three instances were single passage types. This time we have a series of three passages of this aspect, which unfolds over a period of 9 months. In our research presented in The Ultimate Book on Stock Market Timing Volume 2: Geocosmic Correlation to Investment Cycles, it is obvious that long-term cycles tend to culminate most often between the first and last passage of a three-passage series. In terms of the current U.S. and world stock indices, we can anticipate that the crest of the 4-year cycle will occur between November 2004 and August 2005, with a possibility of extending to October.

And speaking of Jupiter and Neptune… notice what has been happening in Crude Oil. Jupiter and Neptune co-rule crude oil. From a high of 55.65 on October 27, crude oil futures have plunged to the 42.00 area. Readers might remember that we reported a few weeks ago that if crude oil prices are rising into a U.S. Presidential election, they top out around mid-October before the election, and then sell off at least 15% into January following the election. That correlation did not fail us. It worked exactly as it has worked in the past.

Not only did Jupiter form a waning trine to Neptune last Tuesday, but it was also the date that Mercury began its retrograde motion, which will last through December 20. This is seldom a time band that is easy to trade, regardless of what method of analysis one uses. Fundamental news, like economic reports or political announcements, tends to be contradictory, causing confusion in the investment community. Technical studies defining support and resistance tend to not be reliable, as prices either exceed those levels slightly (as in “false break outs”), or fail to get there altogether. For these reasons our motto is to “take profits quickly” during Mercury retrograde. Don’t wait around for a market to complete a pattern or a price target, or to continue in the direction of a “breakout” of support or resistance for very long.

Last week’s markets were fascinating in yet another way by means of astrology. For instance, we note that all the major European currencies soared to new all-time or multi-year highs against the U.S. Dollar, while Gold continued making a new 16-year high. Each of these markets is in a “blow-off” pattern, which is where long-term resistance zones keep breaking down. We expect short-term support and resistance to fail during Mercury retrograde periods, but not necessarily long-term ones. The astrological correlate to long-term resistance breaking down usually corresponds to the presence of Jupiter aspects and/or several planets in the sign that Jupiter rules, which is Sagittarius. The Jupiter-Sagittarius principle can pertain to the dynamic of exaggeration, over-optimism, over-confidence, and over-reaching. It is a principle that can exceed or overstep any boundary. That is what is occurring in these markets today (as well as politics), especially over the past 1-2 weeks. Prices continue to break above resistance, and the sense is that they will never stop. And coincident with this “exaggeration” development is Jupiter in waning trine to Neptune, as well as the Sun, Mercury, and Pluto all in Sagittarius. Mercury, in fact, just went retrograde in Sagittarius. Now just as Sagittarius and Jupiter can correlate with “blow offs” to the upside, they can also correlate with extremely sharp moves to the downside when these markets do reverse. Extremes in both directions are possible, especially when Venus and Mars also move into Sagittarius, on December 16 and 25 respectively. It will still be a lot of Sagittarius, but a different kind of Sagittarius, because the Sun will also switch signs then - to Capricorn – through most of January. Also, Mars in Sagittarius is a time when geopolitical troubles tend to erupt around Israel and her neighbors, and stock markets usually don’t like that. It will be difficult, even for an astrologer, to pick the exact moment when this “over-reaching” and “blow-off” in currencies and precious metals will end, with so many Jupiter-Sagittarian factors currently in effect. But when it does end, the reversal and hysteria to the downside might be just as extreme as the optimism and euphoria was to the upside. There is a lot of money to be made in the market at this time, and lot to also be lost in the next few weeks. That’s the nature of so much Jupiter-Sagittarius at the same time, and especially when Mercury retrograde is also in effect, producing a trail of contradictory messages from our political and economic leaders.

There are no major geocosmic signatures unfolding next week. This huge time band of geocosmic signatures (November 4-December 5) thus comes to an end, which means the “blow-off” could be ending this Monday, or else it continues into the week after. We note that new multi-year highs occurred last week the Australian All Ordinaries, the German DAX index, the S&P, and the NASDAQ Composite. A challenge to the yearly high in the Dow Jones Industrials may be in progress too, but Friday’s high of 10,643 was still over 100 points off the 10,753 level of last February, and it sold off a bit into the close. Thus intermarket bearish divergence remains in effect. And other markets did not look so strong at all, like the Swiss stock index, the London FTSE, or even the Netherlands AEX, all of which could be pointed lower. In fact, only the Argentina Merval stock index looks promising right now, having recently completed a low of some importance. Japan’s market could go either way, but if the Nikkei doesn’t exceed 11,270 this week, I think it could fall over 1000 points into January.

Announcement: Next year’s Forecasts for 2005 book is completed, and expected to be back from the printer and distributed this Friday, December 10. If you have pre-ordered this year’s book by December 8, it will be shipped out Friday of this week through Monday, December 13. All orders received after December 8 may take an additional week to get mailed, so please be patient if you are ordering after Dec. 8. This year’s book can be ordered at $39.95 (plus $5.00 postage USA and Canada, or $12.00 elsewhere), through our website at www.mmacycles.com (click the banner on ORDERS or BOOKS). Or you can order via email at ordersmma@msn.com, or by fax at 1-248-427-1994, or by phone at 1-248-626-3034. This unique overview of each year covers forecasts and critical reversal dates for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Gold, Silver, T-Notes, Euro, Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen, Corn, Soybeans, Wheat and Crude Oil markets. Plus it provides astrological insights into the U.S. and World Economy, as well as the USA Presidency. It even has an ephemeris and an astrological calendar section, and a forecast on the year ahead for each of the 12 signs of the zodiac, by Raymond Merriman! Order now and lock in your reservation for next year’s book!

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.