Last week’s column stated, “Two of the most important coming up are the Sun-Jupiter opposition of March 4 and the Saturn stationary direct of March 7. Sun-Jupiter contacts signify large price swings and a tendency towards hysteria or over-exaggeration, whereas Saturn stations usually coincide with worries.” Well, the end of the week did not witness a huge price swing in the stock market, but it sure did in the U.S. Treasury Bond and T-Notes markets, which moved up sharply on Friday following the unexpectedly low increase in new jobs reported Friday morning. Indeed there are worries now that this economic recovery is not so strong, and may already be stalling out. And at the end of the day another worry erupted as a jury found Martha Stewart (August 3, 1941, 1:33 PM, Jersey City, NJ, according to Ed Steinbrecher and his database) guilty on all four counts related to security fraud and obstruction of justice. The market sure didn’t expect that, as the Martha Stewart stock was trading at its yearly high just prior to the verdict. Trading was immediately halted, and when it resumed, the stock ended up down over 20% on the day. Now that is an example of Jupiter and Saturn both being strong – exaggeration and loss. Saturn also rules the law, and when he is in effect, he demands one to be fully accountable, or suffer severe consequences.

This is an important principle of astrology that also applies to this year’s presidential election. The Untied States, which is “born” in early July 1776, has its natal Sun at 11 or 13 degrees of Cancer, depending on whether one uses the July 2 start of the independence vote, as I do, or the July 4 date when the vote was completed. Regardless of which date is the correct one, transiting Saturn is presently transiting (in the current skies) over this U.S.A. natal Sun, from September 2003 through June 2004. It is also transiting over President George Bush’s Sun during this same period. He was born July 6, 1946. And October 1, 2004-December 15, 2004, President Bush will find transiting Saturn going stationary retrograde over his natal Saturn at 26-1/2 degrees of Cancer. Thus both Mr. Bush and the entire country are undergoing a very intense Saturn cycle during the course of this year.

The importance of Saturn in today’s guilty verdict of Martha Stewart points out that this country’s leadership will also have to be accountable for its past behavior. Can it satisfactorily answer the questions that the jury – the American public – will demand of it? Martha Stewart denied any wrongdoing in the selling of her IMClone stock a couple of years ago, and the jury did not believe her. George W Bush denies any wrongdoing in many of his decisions in the past 2 years. Will the American public – the jury – believe him come November?

The American public continues to ask President Bush about his decision to unilaterally force a regime change in Iraq, primarily on the basis that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction that still have not been found. The American public continues to ask George Bush to account for his reasons for entering the National Guard and his record therein, during the Viet Nam war. Does the American public accept or believe his explanations? And now if the economy starts to stall, and new jobs are no longer on the increase, the American public will ask for an accounting of his handling of this economy. They are already asking him to account for the sudden leap from budget surplus to record federal deficit spending in just two years. Does the American public accept his reasoning for this turn of events? So far, it appears they do. And, as stated in prior reports, I think the U.S. public will vote into office the person they think is the most patriotic. If Saturn is so strong in the U.S.A. chart, it indicates (to me) that it will vote conservative. That favors George Bush.

But many astrologers prefer to make a judgement based more on the signatures in each candidate’s chart, as opposed to the chart of the country. If that is the most important consideration, that I would agree with most astrologers who favor John Kerry in this election. His chart is the more charismatic presently, as he enjoys an exciting trine between transiting Uranus and his natal Venus into January 2005. This is a classical “attraction” signature. His popularity has soared. He came out of nowhere just a couple of months ago, to seal up the Democratic nomination in last week’s Super Tuesday primary. His sudden ascent is typical of such a Uranus transiting aspect in trine to Venus.

But I am not in the camp that believes that chart of the candidate is the most important factor in making a forecast in an election. More important, in my opinion, is the chart of the voters, the jury if you will. Or in this case, the chart of the United States itself, and the chart of Election Day in comparison to the USA chart. On Election Day, the Moon is in Cancer, trine the Sun in Scorpio. In my opinion, that is a dynamic that is conservative, and likely opts not to make a change. It is a dynamic that favors one who is most patriotic, and unless John Kerry can account for his possibly unpatriotic behavior following his stint in Viet Nam, it seems that George Bush has this title. Maybe Kerry can translate those actions into an act of patriotism, which may not be too difficult to those – like the Baby Boomers - who lived during those exciting but turbulent times. It was a time when courage had more to do with opposing an unpopular war than accepting a draft into it, in the minds of many. But for Kerry to take that route will resurrect old wounds that still haunts this country’s soul. I don’t think he will go there. He needs the vote of younger generations, and they could care less about those times of a Saturn cycle ago. They want to know who is going to do the best job providing for their future employment, and the future security of this country.

Which brings us back to the present. How are world stock indices responding to this Jupiter ans Saturn period? Well, some are doing very good, and some not so good. In the Far East, both the Australian All Ordinaries and Japanese Nikkei soared to new 2-year highs on Friday’s close. The Hang Seng of Hong Kong made a three-year high on Monday, but then sold off a bit by week’s end. In Europe, the London FTSE and the Swiss stock market rallied to new yearly highs on Friday before settling back somewhat. Germany’s DAX index also rallied strongly, confirming it is now in the beginning of a new primary cycle that probably will make a new yearly high shortly. The same cannot be said of Netherlands AEX index, which looked sluggish, closing the week at 359.90, still a bit off its high of February 19. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and NASDAQ Composite failed to take out their highs of earlier this year in last week’s trading. They were both sluggish. But the S&P nearby futures did rally strongly, to a new yearly high on Friday. Gold made a probable primary cycle trough last week at 389 in the June contract. It rallied strongly into Friday’s close. The same with the European currencies, which may have also made their primary cycle lows last week.

As stated last week, we are presently in a wide time band in which a multitude of geocosmic signatures is in effect February 22-March 28. The midpoint of this cluster is March 10-11, which is a likely time for a critical reversal in many markets, give or take 3 trading days. But it is also possible that some markets made important turns last week, as the Sun-Jupiter opposition (March 4) and Saturn stationary retrograde (March 7) influences began their effect in mundane matters. They are probably the most important components of the entire month-long cluster. Their influence continues into early this week, along with Venus now entering Taurus, one of its ruling signs (the other is Libra). Maybe this later signature accounts for the good news in the interest rate sectors (T-Bonds, T-Notes, and currencies). If so, this may have yet another bullish correspondence to stock markets through much of this period. Right now, the most likely markets poised to benefit from this are in Australia, Japan, and Germany. That transit will last through April 3.

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.