Subdued Venus will call the shots this week

Stocks bounced back last week on encouraging earnings news and stabilising global sentiment. Revisiting its highs for the year, the Sensex gained almost 2% to close at 18,143 while the Nifty finished Friday at 5439.

I had thought we might see more of Saturn’s negative effects given its growing dominance in the sky in the wake of its conjunction with Mars on July 31. As it happened, however, Jupiter’s influence appears to be lingering here as witnessed by the bullish trend early in the week. One important factor for the Jupiterian boost was the mid-week aspect with Mars that I noted in last week’s column. The lead-in period to this aspect may have been one reason why investors were optimistic (Jupiter) about risk-taking (Mars).

One disappointing result was the inability of the entry of Venus into Virgo on Monday to restrain market enthusiasm in any measure. It should be noted that Venus’ placement will last until well into September so its effects may be drawn out somewhat. As expected, the late week aspect between Mercury (trading) and Rahu (interruption, uncertainty) did produce some declines.

The planetary traffic jam continues in August as we will see a parade of aspects involving no less than eight planets.  The next major aspect will be the opposition between Jupiter and Saturn on August 16. This is a blending of bullish and bearish influences and often marks significant market moves. The previous opposition in late May corresponded with a significant correction, although other outcomes are also possible. Saturn (pessimism) then forms a square aspect with Pluto (large organisations) on August 21, which seems unlikely to boost sentiment.

On a more positive note, Jupiter is now gathering speed ahead of its conjunction with Uranus on September 18 so that at least
offers some more clearly bullish influence leading into that date.

This week will vault Venus into the limelight as it passes through the various aspects with Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto.  While the market moved higher when Mars made a similar passage last week, we need to remember that Venus is in Virgo here and hence, it may not be able to deliver the same enthusiasm for shopping and buying as it normally would.

Venus forms an aspect with Jupiter and Pluto early in the week so that may be more positive overall. Later in the week, Venus will move closer to malefic Mars so gains may be harder to come by. In addition, Mars itself will approach its own aspect with Rahu. Mars and Rahu combinations often symbolise sudden or ill-considered actions without regard for consequence. This disruptive aspect is actually exact early next week, although we may get a taste of it here.

Crude oil moved higher as positive economic data pushed prices over $80. This week will begin with a New Moon in watery Cancer so that could boost prices in the early part of the week. Later in the week, the Moon will transit Virgo and hence join forces with Venus, Mars and Saturn. Given the preponderance of malefics in this alignment, this seems much less conducive to gains.

As the dollar continued to lose ground, gold rose 2% last week closing at $1208 on the futures contract.   The weakening of Venus in Virgo was effectively offset by the speculative boost from Mars-Jupiter. This week, Venus will be caught in between malefics Mars and Saturn, so that will likely add some pressure on gold.  Nonetheless, the early week aspect between Venus and Jupiter may provide a temporary lift. 

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