Once again world stock indices put in a mixed week. In Europe, the German DAX, Netherlands AEX, and Swiss stock markets all made new highs for this year late last week. But the London FTSE index did not. The DAX soared to 3487.90 on Thursday, representing an appreciation of nearly 60% since its multi-year low of 2188.80 that was realized on March 12. It closed the week at 3438.90. The AEX reached 319.10 on Friday, for a gain of 46.5% from its multi-year low in early March. It closed the week at 314.70. The Swiss stock index soared to a new high for the year too on Friday, achieving 5101.10, before closing the week at 5044.80. But the London FTSE topped out on Monday at 4183, which was off its prior high for the year of 4218.80, achieved on June 17. The FTSE then sold off to close near the lows of the week at 4098.40. Based on the technical picture, it appears that this index will fall lower. In fact, all the other European indices also look toppy, and ready to make at least a corrective decline as we enter the new week.

In the Far East, both the Hang Seng of Hong Kong and the Australian All Ordinaries stock indices made new highs for the year on Friday. They also closed near those highs, with the Hang Seng up to 10,293 and the All Ordinaries at 3126.50. Here the momentum indicators still look supportive of further gains. But in Japan, the Nikkei index failed to make a new high for the year, making a secondary crest at 9910 on Tuesday, the day Mars turned retrograde, before selling off to close the week at 9611, and not looking so positive coming into next week.

In America, the Dow Jones Industrial Averages soared to a new high for this year as it hit 9361.40 on Thursday. However, a sell off ensued later in the day and through Friday, and it closed the week at 9154. Likewise the NASDAQ Composite made its high of the week on Thursday at 1757.40. But this was not a new high for the year, failing to match the 1776.120 level of July 14. As with the European and Far Eastern markets, we thus see a continuation of Intermarket bearish divergence in the American markets. This continues to be a concern to support underlying these world markets.

Last week’s market behavior was typical of Mars turning retrograde. Stocks gave conflicting signals all week, while T-Notes, currencies (against the USA Dollar), and Gold prices plunged sharply from corrective highs formed right on Tuesday, the date Mars turned retrograde. In fact, in the T-Bond and T-Note markets, there is a real sense of panic. As discussed previously in this column, I think the high for a long, long time is now in, and we will not see long-term interest rates as low as they were just a few weeks ago, for many, many years. This is related to the 16-18 year Saturn-Pluto half cycle, which topped out in 2002 (interest rates were due to bottom then). The cycle is never exact, but it is extremely reliable for the main body of this 16-18 year period. In other words, this cycle points to generally rising interest rates, and sideways to down stock values, for the next two decades. Of course there will be intermediate periods of rallies, and some may even be sharp. For our Swiss and German readers, you may want to refer to the work of Claude Weiss of AstroData in Zurich for ore information on this cycle.

This week we begin entering a new potential reversal zone for stocks. The most important signature coming up will be the Sun-Neptune opposition on Monday, August 4. This is a Level 1 type of signature (strongest), with a 65% correlation to primary or greater cycles within 8 trading days. The high of Thursday (two days before the aspect) is at least a major cycle crest, and maybe even a primary type. On Thursday, Venus will oppose Neptune, a weak Level 3 type signature. The current cluster ends with Sun in a waning trine to Pluto (Level 2) on August 10, and Venus in the same aspect to Pluto (Level 2), and Mars the same to Saturn (Level 3), on Tuesday, August 12. The period in between these dates can coincide with a stock market reversal from a low or high that forms. At the moment, it appears more likely to be a low in the U.S. markets, at least.

Last week I discussed the potential political and psychological dynamics associated with Mars retrograde in Pisces and the Sun-Neptune opposition. I stated that it could be a time of wild rumors and miscalculations. And what did we see? The Pentagon’s Darpa unit proposed a new futures contract based on speculation as to when the next terrorist attack would take place. Within hours, the head of the unit, John Poindexter, was forced to resign amidst an uproar. Also, the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) initiated a lawsuit against the new U.S. Patriot Act that allows authorities to monitor books people read and conduct secret searches. And, according to Friday’s Wall Street Journal, “A British parliamentary panel concluded the war (in Iraq) didn’t hurt, and may indeed have helped, Al Qaeda.” These are all activities consistent with Mars retrograde in Pisces, a factor that will now be in effect through September 27.

Yet, in the midst of this past week, President George Bush finally acknowledged responsibility for the misinformation given in his State of the Union address regarding reasons for commencing the War on Iraq, and he continues to show strong support by Americans, according to the last week’s polls. Yet Saturn continues to move forward through Cancer, his Sun sign and also the Sun sign of the United States. This suggests that the Iraq matter, and his decisions regarding it, will continue to be questioned for several more months. Hopefully he will demonstrate wisdom and patience in his replies, which represent the brighter sides of a Saturn transit, and will inspire greater confidence in the future course of America to the rest of the world.

Mars is now retrograde through September 27. Therefore this may be a good time to review the purpose of this free weekly column. Some readers, as well as some institutions, may assume the purpose is to predict the future movement of various financial markets. However, that is the correct purpose of my subscription services. This column is not a subscription service. It is a free service, written to educate the reader to the relationship between astrological factors and collective human activities as they are happening. In this regard, I 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. I will then identify the geocosmic factors that will be in effect in the next week, or even month, or even years, and my understanding of how these signatures will likely affect human activity in the times to come. I will do this from a perspective of a cycles analyst looking at the military, political, economic, and even financial markets of the world. The 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.

In this regard, I would, like the readership to know that I will now begin to offer cyclical, technical, and astrological analysis and forecasts of all the world stock indices covered in this weekly column, within our newly designed SOS Stock Market Cycles Report. If you are indeed interested in knowing the details of the price objectives and time objectives for cyclical tops and bottoms in these markets, I suggest you consider this new service.

Disclaimer: 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.