This Monday will be a Memorial Day holiday in the United States, and financial markets will be closed. In typical fashion, many of the world’s stock indices, and especially in the U.S.A., rose in price going into this holiday week. But Monday is actually a midway point of a cluster of 5 important geocosmic signatures. These include Mars conjunct Saturn on May 24, Sun square Uranus on May 27, Sun square Jupiter on Monday, May 31, Venus in opposition to Pluto on June 3, and the Sun square Neptune on June 5. The point in the middle of this cluster is May 30-31, which is right now. In our methodology, the midway point of a cluster such as this is a critical reversal date, particularly if one of those signatures is a Level 1 type, and occurs within three trading days of this midpoint. That is the case now, as the Sun-Uranus square of May 27 (Thursday) is within just two trading days of May 30-31.

The Sun-Uranus square is an important signature to stock indices, as described last week. It has an historical 82% correlation to primary or greater cycles within 11 trading days. It is true that this range covers the May 17 low in so many stock markets around the world. But that reversal pertained more to the Venus and Neptune retrograde, which happened exactly on May 17. So it seems that this reversal zone, around May 31, would coincide with a temporary crest from which there might be a pullback. In fact, that is what seems to be happening in many of these markets.

Last week saw most of the world’s stock indices make their weekly highs on Thursday, May 27, or Friday. In Europe, the German DAX continued to rally all week, making its highest high since its primary cycle trough of May 17 on Friday, at 3940.70. But it sold off into the close, ending the week at 3902.70. The FTSE of London also made its high of the week on Friday at 471, but likewise sold off into the close to end at 4431. The FTSE looks much weaker than other indices from a technical point of view. The Netherlands AEX climbed only to 339.46 on Friday for its weekly high, before settling back to 336.95 to close the week. It is not that much higher than the 319.40 low posted on May 17. The Swiss Index peaked even earlier, on Wednesday of last week at 5723.70. But it ended the weak at a disappointing 5627.10. Each of these markets appears either overbought and ready for a correction (DAX and AEX), or quite weak (FTSE and Swiss).

In the Far East, the Australian All Ordinaries rallied all week, to peak at 3462 on Friday. This is very close to its all-time high of 3472.50 registered on April 23. But like the others, it slipped into the close, ending the week at 3447. The Hang Seng of Hong Kong was also strong all weak, ending up at 12,117, just slightly off Friday’s high of 12,222, and well above the 10,917 low of May 17. The same was true of the Japanese Nikkei, climbing all the way from 10,489 on May 17 to 11,345 on Friday, before ending the week at 11,309. It looks like both of these later markets could go higher early next week.

In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to 10,222.20 on Thursday, well above its 9852-9862 double bottom of May 12 and 17. It closed the week at 10,188. The NASDAQ Composite also topped out on Thursday, at 1991.90, but closed only slightly lower at 1086.70.

So we continue to see the lows of May 17th holding. That was the perhaps the most important critical reversal date of the year for world stock indices, as identified far ahead of time in this column. It was the day the both Neptune and Venus turned retrograde. And as discussed before, Venus retrograde is one signature that can coincide with a counter-trend reversal that oftentimes lasts right into the period when it turns direct. In this case, it turns direct on June 30. If that low holds, and the market does indeed rally into June 30, then it seems very probable that May 17 was a 50-week cycle low (or double bottom) in all of these markets. If that low breaks, then watch it. It probably means the 50-week cycle bottomed back on March 24, and the new 50-week cycle has already turned bearish, and won’t bottom until late this year or even early next year.

This week will be interesting because Venus will be in opposition to Pluto for the second time in this series of three, because of the retrograde factor for Venus. During the first passage, the grizzly abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers was flashed before the eyes of the world. It severely set back the administration’s integrity on this war front, and from that time, George W. Bush’s approval ratings have dropped substantially. As his rating dropped, so did the stock market. This is a pattern we must watch carefully from now through the election. Typically, as the incumbent’s ratings improve, so too does the stock market. As the incumbent’s ratings drop, so too does the U.S. stock market. A particular danger now lies before the White House based on past studies, for if the stock market takes out the low of May in the month of June (below 9852), it means the 50-week cycle is pointed down. It also means the historical probability of the incumbent being re-elected drops to about 20%. Now, I am on record for forecasting that Mr. Bush will win this election. But if June finds stock prices making a new multi-month low, I would definitely hedge that outlook. Oh, in my view of the astrology, it still looks to me that George W. Bush will win. But in terms of this stock market correlation, it says the opposite. I still think the astrology (as I read it) will win out over the stock market correlation. It is my belief, based on the chart of the United States and the day of the election, that the American people will vote very conservatively. They will not feel like making a major change in direction.

But for now, let’s see how this critical reversal date affects stock indices. It suggests that these markets will pull back now. The question: how much? If only a correction, then we would likely go higher yet into late June, following this 3-13 day pullback. But if it is severe, it spells trouble ahead, and probably into at least June 30.

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.

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