MMA WEEKLY - Financial Astrology commentary, Market timing, MMA Cycles, The Merriman Market Analyst

The Market Week in Review :

            Stock indices throughout the world started off with a bang last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for instance, soared over 500 points from its low the previous Friday into the intraday high this past Wednesday. And then it fell hard - to a new low for this part of the cycle intraday on Friday.

            Once again our daily and weekly subscription reports caught this move beautifully. Here is the excerpt from the last week's weekly subscription report: "However, last Friday (Aug 3) was such a day (for a reversal), and the market took out the previous day's low then. This supports the idea that the market could open up higher and rally early this week. In other words, the PPT (Plunge Protection Team) can be expected to make a move to support the markets bright and early, and we could see a 300-400 point rally early on. Traders may look to sell all rallies that remain below 13,738. My guess is that we will rally into Tuesday-Wednesday, and then fade again." And then the daily report on Wednesday night, just after the DJIA tested 13,700 mark that same day, stated. "The new high for this month of August, at 13,695 intraday on Wednesday, still fits with our forecast (of) a temporary high Tuesday-Wednesday, followed by another decline into Monday. If we go by the technicals, it now suggests this is a new primary cycle, and prices would be up into the first half of September. But, lunar cycle still suggests a low by Monday (August 13), which means we have to top out here, probably without a close above that crossover zone of 13,697-13,712. Aggressive traders can now look to sell short based on this outlook, with the idea of taking profits by Monday." Financial astrology doesn't get any more accurate than that, for each of these forecasts were based solely on geocosmic signatures (Jupiter turning direct early last week) and lunar cycles pointing to a high Tuesday-Wednesday, followed by another low within one trading day of Monday, August 13. Let's see if indeed a low does come in by then.

            The pattern witnessed in the DJIA was similar in other equity markets. In the Pacific Rim, the Australian All Ordinaries continued its plunge from its all-time high of 6469 back on July 13. It fell all the way to 5922 last Monday before rallying back to 6187 on Thursday of last week. But then it sold off again to close at 5965 on Friday, right back near those lows. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng fell sharply late last week to a low of 21,661 on Friday, off almost 2000 points from its all-time high of 23,557 on July 26. In Japan, the Nikkei fell to 16,651 intraday on Friday, slightly below its 16,553 low of the prior week. During the week, it did stage a rally to 17,274 that ended Thursday.

            In Europe, all the indices we track fell hard into their weekly lows on Friday. From their all-time highs of July 13, the German DAX, Netherland AEX, and London FTSE have all fallen 10.5-11.7% to their lows of last Friday. The Swiss stock index has done likewise from its all-time high 9518 back on June 4, to the 8515 low last Friday.

            In the Americas, the DJIA has now fallen almost 1000 points (965 to be exact) from its all-time high of 14,022 on July 17, nearly matching its largest point decline of the 4-year cycle (from May 2006 to the low of July 2006, the decline was 986 points). On Friday, it finally poked below the 25-week moving average (now at 13,099), thus satisfying the minimum criterion for a 4-year cycle trough - the same 4-year cycle trough that many people speculated had already occurred (despite my argument to the contrary). I believe this cycle can still go lower, for in 85.7% of historical cases studied, the decline has exceeded 20%. This one has only been 6.8% so far. But as you see, it has already exceeded 10% in many other indices throughout the world. Even the NASDAQ Composite has now declined 8.5% from its 6-year high of 2724 back on July 19 to the low of 2491 last Monday. In Brazil, the Bovespa fell to 51,317 last week from its all-time high of 58292 on July 19, a decline of nearly 12% now. The decline of Argentina's Merval index has been 9.5% from its high of 2303 back on July 23 to the low of 2084 on Friday.

            Equities were not the only markets experiencing selling pressure last week. From a new all-time high of 78.77 on August 1, Crude Oil has plummeted to test the 70.00 mark on Friday. Gold and Silver also took a hit during the week, selling off over $20.00 in Gold between Wednesday's high and Friday's low. In the case of Silver, the September contract went from a high of 1323 on Wednesday to an intraday low of 1267 on Friday, before recovering smartly on the close. It is all consistent with the Venus retrograde factor, and the "translation" of the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars to the recent Saturn-Neptune opposition points. There is more to come (see below).

Short-Term Geocosmics :

The next two weeks should be very interesting. The Sun, Mercury and Venus will all form a conjunction to Saturn and opposition to Neptune between Monday's new moon (August 13), and August 27. Since the 36-year Saturn-Neptune opposition was the dominant aspect of this year, and officially ended June 25, these aspects in effect "translate" over that opposition point. Thus we should see market behavior similar to what we observed during the opposition periods of February 28 and June 25. You may remember that the stock markets fell very hard during those two periods - just like they have been falling recently. And, despite the oversold technical studies, it appears it is not yet over. As stated last week, ".with Venus retrograde, technical studies have a tendency to be unreliable, just as when Mercury is retrograde. (and the ) major geocosmic signature in effect right now is the Venus retrograde, July 27 through September 8."

We will also be closely watching the period around August 23 when Mars forms a powerful opposition to Jupiter. Within a couple days of that, I would expect the stock market to have another extremely "Big Range" day - 300 points up or down, maybe both.

Long-Term Thoughts :

There was an article published Friday by McClatchy Newspapers titled: "U.S. weighs action versus Iran." The sub-title was "Bush warns: Stop meddling in Iraq." We have discussed this issue several times earlier in the year, and it is detailed astrologically in an article on my web site. President George W. Bush is not going to wind down the war. His progressed planets indicate an escalation, not a contraction, of war efforts well into 2008. His popularity continues to be near all-time lows for any sitting President. According to an article in this week's Wall Street Journal, President Bush's popularity is only 31%, and only one in three Americans think the War in Iraq is winnable. Yet conventional wisdom also holds that ". a majority of Americans trust the Republicans more than they do the Democrats" on the issue of national security. In an Associated Press article of last Monday, August 6, presidential historian Dick Shenkman stated, "Bush will be the Nixon of this generation, there is no question."

In my view, there are only three ways for the far right conservatives to maintain power in the 2008 election :

- 1) Bring the war to a successful and victorious conclusion;
- 2) Escalate the military tension under the belief that "Fear sells" by expanding into others areas, like Iran and Syria; or
- 3) The current President becomes a martyr at least six months before the election due to unforeseen circumstances, and creates a huge sympathy vote.

Of these three possible roads to another victory, I only think option #2 is the most likely. With the first passage (of five) of the major 45-year long-term aspect of Saturn in opposition to Uranus coming up on election day 2008, we may witness something truly awesome in the how far people in power will go to maintain that power. That is the most powerful signature denoting the theme "Fear Sells." It is also a signature correlating with an increase in terrorism and/or political assassinations (just look at the mid- to late 1960's when it happened last). But, it is also an aspect that relates to incredible new movements and brilliant and innovative thoughts, leading to new long-term trends that end up having great investment potential. Brace yourself. Life is about to change again, just like it did in the 60's.

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Announcements :

I will be presenting an all-day workshop on Financial Astrology at the DAV (German Astrological) Congress in Karlsruhe, Germany, October 5. I am looking for a translator for this workshop. If anyone would be interested in attending in return for translating this workshop from my English presentation into German, plus a new copy of the German edition of “Merriman on Market Analysis: The Basics” when it comes out about that time, please contact me at mmacycles@msn.com. The emphasis will be upon stock indices (DJIA and DAX), and Gold and possibly Euro versus US Dollar.

The SOS Stock Market Cycles Report and the SOS Global Stock Markets Report came out last week. These reports come out every 6-8 weeks to subscribers of these reports. This report is in two parts. The first report - SOS Stock Market Cycles - focuses purely upon the long-term cycles in the U.S. stock market, specifically the Dow Jones Industrial Average, followed by discussions on both intermediate and short-term cycles. It is the big picture ahead.
The second part is the SOS Global Stock Markets Report. This covers the German DAX, London FTSE, Netherlands AEX, the Australian All Ordinaries, Hang Seng of Hong Kong, the NASDAQ Composite Index, and the XAU Gold and Silver Mining index. For ordering information

The Forecast book for 2008 : The Forecasts for 2008 book can now be pre-ordered at a pre-publication discount rate of $39.95 until October 15. Go to www.mmacycles.com, and click on the banner

The Forecast for 2007 CD is now available! This 2-set CD was created from the speech given January 6, 2007 in Birmingham , Michigan . It is about 2.5 hours long, and covers both the long-term political and cultural cycles we are currently in, as well as those that pertain specifically to 2007. Special areas of discussion include the Crude Oil and the coming energy transformation, the long and short-term economic cycles, the USA and its President, and of course, financial market cycles of stocks, interest rates, housing, and precious metals. The cost is $45.00 plus postage for the CD set. To order, please write to odersmma@msn.com, or call us at 1-800-662-3349, or 248-626-3034.

The newly revised The Sun, The Moon, and Silver Book : Secrets of a Silver Trader, is now out. This is a book that you will use as a reference guide for...many, many years. It identifies all the key Sun-Moon combinations that have a higher (and lower) than expected probability of correlating with 4% or greater reversals in COMEX Silver. It also identifies “Big Range Days” - those days in which the range of Silver is most likely to be 3.5% or more of the price of Silver, which is a great tool for day traders. This book fulfills the dream of all traders: high probability winning trade possibilities, with minimal market exposure. It is that “extra edge.” And Silver is a great market to trade now. The cost is $125.00. For ordering on line.

If you are an active short-term trader, you may wish to consider subscribing to our Weekly or even Daily Market Reports with short-term trading recommendations. These reports give in-depth analysis of the DJIA, S&P and NASDAQ futures, Euro currency (cash and futures), Swiss Franc, Dollar/Yen cash and Yen futures, T-Bonds, Soybeans, Wheat, Gold and Silver. The daily reports cover all stock indices listed above, as well as futures in Euro, T-Bonds, Soybeans, Gold and Silver. Subscription to the daily report also includes the weekly report. For more information, or call our offices at 1-248-626-3034.

The “MMA Cycles Report” and “MMA Japan Markets Cycles Report” will come out later due to travel. They will come out August 22-23. These reports come out every three weeks to subscribers of these reports. The “MMA Cycles Report” (Monday night by email) is our market advisory report for traders of the U.S. stock indices, T-Notes, Gold, Silver, Euro, Swiss Franc, Grains, and Crude Oil. The “MMA Japan Cycles Report” covers the Nikkei, Dollar/Yen, and JGB Bonds, and comes out Tuesday afternoon. For more information

I have had several calls regarding a “crisis investing” portfolio that I suggested could be developed with the help of a money manager who subscribes to my reports, and shares my views about the next few years. If you are interested, you can contact him at ted.fisher@comcast.net.
He will be more than happy to assist you.

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.

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