Comment

Stocks in Mumbai rose 4% last week on positive government GDP growth projections and improved prospects for automakers. The Sensex closed at the high for the year at 17,360, while the Nifty finished at 5178.

This outcome was unexpected given my bearish expectations for the start of Mars retrograde cycle. Clearly, there was sufficient residual optimism left in the hopeful Jupiter-Neptune conjunction on 21 December to drive prices higher once again.

While the market did not peak on exactly that day, we can still interpret last week’s gain and new highs for the year as a manifestation of the combination of these two positive planetary energies.

In last week’s column, I had noted that some gains were possible on Monday’s Venus-Jupiter aspect but these were likely to be short-lived.As it happened, the market fell modestly that day as the benefic energy was delayed, perhaps until the Moon joined Jupiter in Aquarius on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Wednesday’s powerful upday coincided with Mercury’s exact conjunction with Rahu, a surprising result perhaps given Rahu’s bad reputation.But Rahu is perhaps better understood as fickle rather than malefic, hence its influence does not preclude gains but merely makes those gains more tenuous.

This holiday-shortened week will be an important test of the emerging effects of the Mars retrograde period and the aftermath of the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction.The negative bias on both of these influences would tend to make further advances less likely and increase the likelihood of losses.

But they are perhaps best understood as medium-term energies that are activated by other factors. One potentially significant trigger is Mercury, which turned retrograde on 26 December.

Although this does not always take markets down, it should nonetheless be regarded with caution, especially when it is associated with troublesome planets like Rahu and Mars as it is here.

Tuesday has added bearish potential due to the conjunction of Venus with Pluto. Wednesday sees the Moon exalted in late Taurus, which is often a positive placement.
In this case, however, it forms aspects to Mars and Rahu so there may be some undermining of its beneficence.

The Moon enters Gemini for Thursday’s session and will be subject to the perils of Saturn’s aspect, especially in the afternoon. So far the market has passed this initial test of the very early stage of the Mars retrograde cycle and moved higher. But let’s see how it fares once Mercury also turns retrograde this week and the conjunction Jupiter and Neptune is left further behind.

Crude oil moved higher closing above $77 last week on improved expectations for economic recovery. I had expected some gains early from the Venus-Jupiter aspect but thought crude might weaken later on.We could see that weakening delayed until this week as Venus conjoins Pluto on Monday.

Some midweek recovery is possible but the late week patterns do not look particularly positive. Gold continued to slide last week closing at $1,105 on the continuous futures contract.

This was mostly in keeping with expectations although the decline was very modest as speculative optimism from the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction remains active in the marketplace.

Gold may see its fortunes fall further here on the Venus-Pluto conjunction.And may I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and prosperous 2010.

The writer is a neo-Vedic astrologer specialising in predictive astrology.