World stock indices were mixed last week, with some posting new highs for the year early in the week, and others failing to do the same. This lack of confirmation is typical under retrograde planets like Mercury and Mars, which last until September 20 and September 27 respectively. During periods of such retrograde motions, false buy and signals will tend to appear more frequently than usual in many financial markets, as investors tend to switch back and forth between bullish and bearish outlooks. It is not generally an easy market in which to position trade. This is why we advise traders to either take a vacation, or be content to trade very short-term, like even intraday trading. Both the technical and fundamental factors change too quickly during this period to assume an intermediate-term stance.

The same is true in the geopolitical realm too. We discussed previously the nature of Mars retrograde in Pisces (July 29-September 27), as suggesting a period of passive-aggressive behavior. There might be several instances where peace initiatives are started, only to fall apart. We specifically mentioned the "Roadmap to Peace" in the Middle East, between Israel and Palestine, would likely be a prime target to witness this dynamic. And what has already happened? Newly appointed Palestinian Premier Abbas resigned, followed by Arafat’s appointment of Ahmed Qureia. The next day an Israeli plane bombed the home of a Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas leader. The day after this, Israel’s inner cabinet voted to remove Arafat, and the new premier-designate stopped plans to form a new government.

Mars retrograde is generally not a favorable time to begin any confrontational effort. And so what do we see occurring last week that fits into this category of "probably never bearing fruit?" Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal reports "Music Companies Filed lawsuit against 261 individuals in a crackdown on users of Internet file-sharing networks." And then following day’s Wall Street Journal reports "Sept 11 Victims Can Sue the airlines, landlord and aircraft makers involved, a federal judge rules." All we can say is: good luck collecting!

We have also discussed the two-year transit of Saturn through Cancer, and what it might mean to the economy of the United States and its President, George W. Bush, both of which are "born" under the sign of Cancer. In regards to the later, Saturn implies a time of accountability, and continuous requests to go over and over again one’s actions done in the past. Mr. Bush will probably never get past vocal criticism for his decisions involving the Iraqi War, prior to the November 2004 election. In the "World Opinion" section of the New York Times this week, in an article written by Richard Bernstein, the very first paragraph states, "In the two years since September 11, 2001, the view of the United States as a victim of terrorism… has given way to a widespread vision of America as an Imperial power that has defied world opinion through unjustified and unilateral use of military force." Mr. Bush’s approval ratings continue to fall as Saturn approaches his natal Sun. But as of this moment, he still fares better than those who would attempt to unseat him.

Cancer also rules real estate. And with Saturn here for the next two years, we have postulated a stagnancy or downturn in real estate sales. Friday’s Wall Street Journal has a special article in the "Home Front" titled: Trouble at the Top." The gist of the article is that luxury home sales are down, and prices for luxury homes are actually dropping as much as 35% in some areas like Denver, Colorado.

Of course, this can be related to the very sharp rise in long-term interest and mortgage rates since Saturn went into Cancer just a couple of months ago. Even more so, this relates to the second half of the Saturn-Pluto cycle that we also discussed many times. The first half (1982-2002) is when interest rates tend to decline, equity values rise, and budget surpluses unfold. Investors are encouraged to work towards capital appreciation during this part of the cycle. But during the downside of this cycle (2002-2020), interest rates tend to increase, equity values are stagnant or even depressed, and surpluses turn to deficits within the governments of the world. Investors are encouraged to protect their capital during this phase. Along these lines, last week’s news reported that President Bush now seeks $87 billion more to reconstruct Iraq and Afghanistan. The federal deficit is expected to rise even greater than the formally projected record deficit. And to think that just two years ago, the country had a balanced budget with a surplus. In a somewhat related story about deficits, Argentina defaulted on a $2.9 billion payment to the IMF, and on a more personal level, health insurance premiums in the U.S.A. rose a whopping 13.9%, for their largest increase since 1990, according to Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal.

Is there any hope? Is the world really going down, and will the terrorists really take control as the radical left of the world amp up their criticism of Mr. Bush and all those other leaders who want to stamp out terrorists, thereby rendering them ineffective in this war? And in sympathy, will all the stock markets and economies of the Free World go into a massive financial depression, or worse? With last week’s full moon in T-square to Pluto, it might seem at times as if the situation is hopeless. But stock markets throughout history have had a propensity to climb over walls of worry. And in spite of all the depressing news today, most of the world’s stock indices continue to be at their highest level in the past year. This doesn’t mean they will continue straight up without a sizable correction soon, for most are registering weakness in their underlying technical condition. After all, the coming week will represent the 50th week since the 4-year cycle bottomed on October 10, 2002 in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That’s a very long time to be up and still making new highs for the 50-week cycle. I would expect a correction of this entire advance to begin at any time (maybe it already has for many of these indices, which posted new highs between September 4-10, as expected), with a significant bottom to be realized between October 22-November 3.

Have a good week. And for those who are interested, there is still time to sign up for the ISAR 2003 triennial seminar, and the pre-seminar in Financial Astrology, and qualify for the pre-registration discount that ends September 15. The conference takes place October 8-13 in Anaheim, California, and the pre-seminar in financial astrology takes place on October 8. Speakers from 27 different countries will be giving classes. For further information, please see www.isarastrology.com. Or call 1-800-982-1788.

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.