Most of the major stock indices throughout the world continued their recent rally into at least the early parts of last week before pausing ahead of the extended Easter holiday weekend. In some cases – most notably Australia and Japan – the rallies of last week made new multi-year highs. The fact that the recent rally has paused in most markets is consistent with the Mercury retrograde phenomenon, which began last Tuesday, April 6, and will last through April 30.

In Europe, the German DAX stock index topped out last Monday at 4059, before pulling back to 4000 by Wednesday, and closing the week at 4013 on Thursday. The same pattern was evident in the Netherlands AEX stock index, whose rally peaked at 353.92 on Monday, before pausing throughout the rest of the week, and closing at 350.96. The Swiss stock index found its weekly high one day later on Tuesday at 5828.20. It then fell back to close on Thursday at 5803.40. Only the London FTSE remained strong right into the end of the week, where it topped out at 4504.70.

In the Far East, the Japanese Nikkei continued to rally to its highest level in 2 years. It reached 12,119 last Thursday, but then slipped back to close the week at 11,898. The Australian All Ordinaries made a new all-time high last Wednesday, when it hit 3472.20. It ended the week at 3456.60, which was an all-time weekly closing high. The Hang Seng Index of Hong Kong also rallied last week. It closed the week at 12,909, following the weekly high on Thursday at 12,979.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped out late Tuesday, early Wednesday, at 10,570. It then sold off to 10,393.90 on Thursday before ending the week at 10,442. The NASDAQ Composite ended its new rally at 2079.10 on Monday, then fell back slightly to form its low for the week at 2038.70 on Wednesday. It closed the holiday-shortened week at 2052.40 on Thursday.

Most of these indices closed the week in technically overbought territory, suggesting a pause of corrective decline is probably in force now. This fits with the nature of the geocosmic signatures now in effect, April 6-14, including Mercury retrograde. As discussed last week, Mercury retrograde periods are more difficult to forecast than most other periods because technical indicators tend not to be reliable. For instance, daily technical indicators in effect right now suggest the market is readying for another correction. But under Mercury retrograde, the correction may be hardly noticeable, or it may be steeper than one would expect for a correction. My guess is that it will be hardly noticeable, because this is still very early in the new primary and 50-week cycles. And, as cycles’ analysts, we know that the early stages of any cycle are always bullish. That has certainly been the case since the bottom formed just two weeks ago, right during our last geocosmic critical reversal period of March 24-28.

We often receive requests to comment on other markets, like currencies, precious metals, and Treasury Notes. Occasionally I will refer to those markets in this column, but because those markets (plus stocks) are covered in great detail in our subscription reports designed for traders, I tend not to include them in this report, except as it pertains to specific geocosmic signatures currently in effect. Readers of this column, and subscribers to our “MMA Cycles Report”, know that I have been very bullish on foreign currencies against the U.S. Dollar since December 2002. This coincided with the time that Paul O’Neil resigned as U.S. Treasury Secretary, an event that I interpreted to mean that the White House wanted a lower U.S. Dollar to revive the struggling American economy. It also precluded the time that Saturn would enter Cancer, forming a conjunction to both he U.S. natal Venus and Jupiter. Venus in a country’s chart represents its currency value, and Saturn tends to depress that value vis-à-vis other currencies. This indeed has happened. However, I don’t think the bullish trend in foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar is over, even though Saturn has not turned direct and is leaving conjunction to the natal U.S. Venus and Jupiter in early Cancer. I think the recent strength in the Dollar is almost over, at least against the European currencies. My bias is still that the Euro and Swiss Franc will trend higher most of this year, and this correction is nearly complete.

For the future, we want to set our focus on the period around May 17, when both Venus and Neptune will turn retrograde. These are the two strongest retrograde signatures correlating to major trend reversals in U.S. stock indices, according to the studies presented in “The Ultimate Book On Stock Market Timing Volume 3: Geocosmic Correlations to Trading Cycles.” I have also observed that the retrograde period of Venus (May 17-June 30 this year) coincides with major shifts in monetary policy by central banks, like the Federal Reserve Board. This is in turn affects various markets such as Treasury Bonds, Notes, and currencies, which may then influence the price of precious metals and even grain prices. For example, the Federal Reserve monetary policy has been one of accommodation and easing for the past few years. Even though the interest rate declines have ceased, there has been no effort to raise the rates. Recently the FRB has implied that it may be readying for a change in this policy soon, depending on the results of future economic reports. My sense is that once Venus goes retrograde, those reports may actually show greater economic strength, at least in the U.S., and the warning of interest rate increases in the near future may be forthcoming. But the question will then be whether or not the FED would actually start raising rates before the presidential election. It would, of course, prefer to do nothing until after the election, for fear of appearing partisan of one party over the other. But if the economy continues to show strength, and the job market starts to grow rapidly, it may not have a choice. That belief could very well become more evident during the time that Venus is retrograde. And the fact that the U.S. economy will continue to expand this year is indicated by the transit of Uranus in a trine aspect to the U.S.A. Venus and Jupiter positions. It is almost immediately after this election, when Uranus moves out of that harmonious trine, that we must be most cautious.

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.