Planets clustering in Aries ups likelihood of declines

Stocks trended mostly lower last week as negative global cues offset an improved corporate earnings outlook.

The Sensex declined by more than 1% closing at 18,326 while the Nifty finished the week at 5486. I thought the market had a reasonable chance of gains going into midweek, although I cautioned that the tentative bullish picture was complicated by some difficult patterns in the NSE horoscope. As a result, we saw the down trend in place from Monday to Wednesday with a short-covering rally reversal on Thursday and into Friday. Friday’s gain was unexpected, given the approaching conjunction of Mercury to Mars. As it turned out, the negative fallout of this bearish pairing only manifested after Indian markets had closed as European and US markets fell through much of the day.

Market players appear to be taking a wait and see approach here as there is a significant amount of scepticism that the economy can throw off the twin shackles of inflation and slower growth. This skepticism is very much in keeping with the strengthening of Saturn in recent weeks. Saturn’s pessimism tends to surface when its velocity decreases and it forms a close angle with another planet. 

We can see that both conditions are satisfied here as Saturn is slowing down ahead of its direct station on June 13 when it will form an approximate square aspect with Pluto. This is a potentially bearish combination of planets that could focus attention on slowing growth and the risks of high levels of sovereign debt.   While the most likely outcome of this combination is falling stock prices, it is important to take note of alternative interpretations. In the current inflationary environment, the perception of slowing growth may actually be more prudent and beneficial to the economy and the market. In that way, it is possible that the strengthening of Saturn could actually be a necessary antidote to the recent excesses of Jupiter and Rahu. Nonetheless, this Saturnian prudence seems somewhat more likely to produce further selling in the weeks ahead.

This week there is a clustering of planets in Aries that increases the likelihood of declines. Mercury, Venus and Mars will form a tight triple conjunction here at the beginning of the week. To make matters more interesting, this conjunction is in a close alignment with Saturn from Monday to Wednesday. There is quite a bit of energy contained in these four planets so it’s possible we could see some significant moves. Disentangling precise aspect effects is more difficult, however, due to the close proximity of the planets.  Generally, the midweek period may be somewhat more likely to experience declines as Mars forms its closest aspect with Saturn on Wednesday. Gains are still possible as a result of this triumvirate, however, although there are perhaps more likely Tuesday and Friday.

Crude oil was mostly unchanged again last week finishing around $99.  The midweek rally attempt arrived a little later and was weaker than expected as it barely pushed prices back to the $100 level.  This week looks fairly bearish as the multiple aspects to Saturn may make commodities such as crude less attractive. The midweek period is perhaps somewhat more likely to see declines.

Gold moved slightly higher on the week as it closed near $1510. I thought the Sun-Jupiter aspect might spark some gains earlier in the week, but we only saw the $1500 level touched on Wednesday and then again on Friday. This week’s planetary activity appears to strengthen Saturn, which could see declines outweighing any gains.

 The writer is a neo-Vedic astrologer specialising in predictive astrology. He runs the website www.modernvedicastrology.com