Greetings once again from Melbourne, Australia, where I am participating in the FAA (Federation of Australian Astrologers) biennial conference at the University of Melbourne. Everything is great here except for the fact that I cannot get online with my own lap top computer. I have to use the university's computer lab. And this means I am unable to download market data through my own software programs. Thus this will be another weekly column that will pertain to the "bigger picture" instead of a review of the various world stock indices I tend to focus on every week. I have, however, been able to keep up with the U.S. and Japanese equity markets, as well as precious metals and currencies.

The U.S. stock markets continued making new highs last week, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing up to 10,660.90 last Thursday. As long term subscribers to our services know, my price target for the crest of the 4-year cycle is about 10,800 +/- 450. So, we are in the lower side of the price target range already.

After suffering a rather sharp pullback the prior week, the Euro currency started to recover again this last week. From a low of 1.2331 on Monday, the Euro climbed all the back to 1.2775 before retracing again to close the week at 1.2593. The all-time high occurred a week earlier at 1.2898. As reported in our MMA Cycles Report market letter, I am expecting a 2-8 month corrective decline in the Euro, and rally in the U.S. Dollar. I see this decline as a buying opportunity, within the framework of what I have been advising in this weekly report since early December 2002. That is, I think the Dollar is in the midst of a long-term decline, and investors have been advised to place a percentage of their investment monies into money market funds that are denominated in Euros, Australian Dollars, and Canadian Dollars. This advice has resulted in 25-40% gains in the past 13 months. One company that allows you to this is Evergreen. But I don't remember whether Evergreen is a bank or a mutual fund. Your broker should know. If you have a sizable account ($250,000.00 or more), then major brokerage houses, like Smith Barney, will do this transaction for you too.

Gold and Silver also declined with the foreign currencies in the past two weeks. After reaching a 7-year high of $428.30 and $6.71 respectively back on January 6 and 12, Gold and Silver fell back to 405 and 6.10 respectively in past couple of days. The January 6 high was within one trading day of our January 5 three-start geocosmic critical reversal date

The short-term geocosmic picture becomes activated again January 29-February 2 when three signatures unfold. The first is Venus in opposition to Jupiter this Thursday, January 29. This is only a Level 3 type of signature (weakest), but it can indicate a period of overestimation in financial and economic areas. It may indicate estimates of economic data that is exaggerated and out of line with reality. When equity prices rise into such an announcement, and then the data turns out to be disappointing, those same prices can then start a retreat.

However, this is then followed by the presence of two Level 1 (strongest) signatures. On February 1, Venus will form a waxing square to Pluto. The next day, the Sun will form a conjunction to Neptune. This latter signature has a very high correlation to primary cycles, according to the studies I reported in The Ultimate Book on Stock Market Timing Volume 3: Geocosmic Correlations to trading Cycles. Within an orb of 9 trading days, the rate of frequency for primary cycles has been 75%. The probability of a minimum 4% change of direction within only 4 trading days has been 79%. Thus Sun-Neptune conjunctions must be watched carefully for the end of multi-week trends, and the beginning of new multi-week trends. From an interpretive point of view, Sun-Neptune signatures generally correlate with a shift of collective attentive away from illusion, and onto reality. Neptune represents the urge to see the best in things, to wish for the best. When this altruistic and hopeful period ends, it sometimes seems like the burst of a bubble. Oftentimes hard core data is in conflict with popular belief or assumption about "the way that things are." It is frequently a time of rumors as well, and these may not pan out to be accurate later on. With Venus-Pluto in square the day before, these rumors or false assumptions may have something to do with interest rates and debt markets. Perhaps central banks finally acknowledge that there is indeed a threat of inflation, and interest rates may have to rise soon.

As many of you know, this is what we have been anticipating for some time, ever since Saturn went into Cancer (last June), and especially with the downside of the Saturn-Pluto cycle. From the conjunction (1982) to the opposition (2002) of Saturn and Pluto, interest rates tend to decline, economies tend to prosper, and governments tend to balance their budgets. It is a good time to invest, and the name of the game is "Capital Appreciation." But from the opposition to the conjunction (2002-2020), the opposite happens. Government surpluses turn back to deficit spending, interest rates rise, stock markets are stagnant, and economies struggle. It is not a favorable investment climate, and the name of the game is "Protection of Capital." One must learn to be a saver again, or invest in one's own activities and business. This cycle has been remarkably accurate in the major Western world economies for the past 200+ years.

Our regular column will resume next week. In the meantime, all the best to everyone.

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.