Senator John Kerry continued to build up his position as the Democratic front runner with several impressive victories in state primaries held last week. President George Bush continued to be put on the defensive about both his economic policies and his interpretation of intelligence reports related to weapons of mass destruction that have yet to be found, for commencing the war with Iraq. And now the CIA chief gives a rare public speech in which he defends those post-war intelligence reports, stating that the agency never called the threat from Iraq “imminent,” as the President claimed at the time. And as the week ended, the president appointed a 9-member independent committee to look into how such inaccurate information came about. But thew committee would not be due to report its findings until next March, well after the 2004 presidential election takes place this November. In response, Democratic challenger John Kerry complains that such a delay in the report of this committee’s findings is unnecessary, that the committee should be able to makes it report in only a couple of months.

Thus starts the process of the fight to the White House in this election year. And it ought to be a most difficult journey for all involved because Saturn is transiting through Cancer, past the natal Sun of both the United States of America and President George Bush. Accountability for one’s past will likely be the primary focus as both the President and the Democratic challenger dissect and criticize one another’s past and current positions. The possibility of a negative campaign, highlighting one’s another’s weaknesses, appears greater than the prospect of positive progressive ideas. On top of this, there remains the possibility of personal danger to both candidates as Saturn will be stationary and in opposition to the Moon-Pluto conjunction in the July 2, 1776 chart of the U.S.A. Pluto will also be in opposition to its natal Mars. Pluto is the planet signifying the possibility of a personal threat. It can also represent a serious attempt to reform the existing status quo, which could be positive. Around election time, President George Bush will also be going through his second Saturn return. John Kerry will be undergoing Pluto in opposition to his natal Moon-Saturn conjunction in Gemini through 2005. So the keys to this election may be mired in Saturn and Pluto issues: accountability and character, related to one’s past decisions (Saturn), along with issues of power, ability to transform the status quo, and threats to one’s personal safety.

And yet with all this worry, the equities markets of the world started to rebound from a 1-2 week correction by the end of last week. In Europe, the German DAX made an 18-month high at 4175.50 on January 27, just a couple of days before our critical reversal date of January 30. After falling back to 4007.90 early Friday, it rallied to close the week at 4045. The Swiss Stock Index also made an 18-month high on January 28, reaching 5825. It closed at 5810, near those highs. The Netherlands AEX attained a new 2-year high on January 27 when it touched 360.90. It too closed the week near those highs, at 351.40. However, the London FTSE index made its high back on January 20, at 4527.50, so there was a case of Intermarket Bearish Divergence. The FTSE closed the week down to 4402.70, quite a ways off from its recent highs. The possibility exists that maybe one or more of the European indices may test or make yet another new high this week, unaccompanied by the others.

In the Pacific Rim, both the Australian All Ordinaries and Hang Seng indices posted new yearly highs on January 27, reaching 3357 and 13,781 respectively. The All Ords closed well of those highs, at 3274. The hang Seng, however, closed strong, at 13,310. But in Japan, the Nikkei index still remains far below its highs of last October 21 when it touched 11,239. It formed a double top to it on January 20, when it rallied back to 11,194. But it closed the week down at 10,461. Thus here too we see a case of intermarket bearish divergence between indices, with a chance of the Hang Seng to post yet another new high shortly, while the others fall short.

In the United States, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite posted new yearly highs on January 26, at 10,705 and 2154 respectively. Both corrected and remained low through much of this past week, before a sharp rally on Friday brought them up smartly, with the DJIA closing at 10,592 and the Comp at 2064. Will this late week rally continue, or will prices turn right back down again?

A lunar reversal cycle is in effect Monday-Tuesday of this week, and it is usually a high in the U.S. stock market. Transiting Venus will leave Pisces and enter Aries on February 8, lasting through March 5. Venus in Aries is classified as its detriment, which means it is usually not so strong in its influence there. Since Venus rules possessions values, and stocks are considered a type of value, there may be some concern about the value of equities in the coming weeks. This concern may increase when Venus in Aries forms a square to Saturn in Cancer on February 14. Saturn, as discussed before, signifies possible worries. In this case, the worries may be regarding the future of interest rates, and indirectly, stock values. Venus in the waning square to Saturn is a Level 1 (strongest) type of signature. However, it is by itself. There are no other primary astrological signatures present nearby, not until February 22. That implies that a primary or greater cycle is not unlikely to end and begin then. Perhaps it is a temporary change that unfolds at that time. The bigger cluster of signatures takes place February 22-March 8, and maybe even into the following week. My bias is that if the market turns back down this week, the decline will continue into that period. A signature that comes in March 12 usually represents the end of a very sharp drop in U.S. stocks. However, that drop may have lasted as little as only three days, or several weeks.

Both Gold and Silver also continued their declines for much of last week, with Silver temporarily dropping below 6.00 before recovering smartly on Friday. And Gold traded below 400.00 for much of last week, before starting another rally on Friday and closing back above this critical benchmark price. As stated before, and in this year’s Forecast Book, both precious metals are in time frames for their long-term cycle lows in the first half of this year (and probably even first quarter).

In an earlier report we mentioned that this year’s Forecast Book was going to sell out early, and that we do not make reprints. The books indeed sold out by mid-January, and the demand for copies is more than we ever experienced in the past. And thus we decided that we would have a second printing after all. The second printing will arrive this week. If you ordered previously and were told that all copies had been sold out, and/or you wish a copy of this book, please feel free to order or re-order now. You may call us at 1-800-662-3349, or visit our web site at www.mmacycles.com, and go to Orders – MMA.

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.