(18 January 2023) US shares fell sharply immediately on rising
recession fears as the most recent retail gross sales report confirmed a 1.1% decline
in December.  Bond yields additionally tumbled immediately as PPI wholesale inflation
for December got here in beneath expectations at 6.2%.  Yields at the moment are properly
their December lows with the 2-year at 4.06% and the benchmark 10-year
at 3.37%.  Bond yields have been falling in latest months as extra
traders change into satisfied that the worst of inflation is behind us and
that financial progress could also be slowing.

To date, this week’s decline coincides with the bearish Mars-Mercury
alignment that I famous in final week’s submit.  Mars elements to Mercury are
often bearish for the inventory market since Mercury is the planet of
commerce and buying and selling.  As a malefic planet, Mars has the potential to
upset or interrupt the significations of no matter planet it elements. 
The likelihood of a decline was much more probably this week since each
Mars and Mercury had been transferring very slowly:  Mars stationed direct final
Thursday and was nonetheless transferring at simply 15% of its regular velocity immediately
whereas Mercury stationed direct this morning (Jan 18) and thus was transferring
at lower than 5% of its regular velocity by the shut immediately.  As a basic
rule, slower planets are stronger planets, particularly when in shut
alignment.  And each time planetary elements embrace a malefic like Mars
or Saturn, a adverse end result within the monetary markets is far more
probably.

However now that each Mars and Mercury have accomplished their retrograde
cycles and are as soon as once more transferring ahead, may the markets be in a
higher place to rise?  Sure and no.  The ahead movement of Mars and
Mercury is a extra bullish affect on sentiment, all different issues being
equal.  However this 210-degree Mars-Mercury facet will stay in shut
proximity for a number of extra days.  Due to this fact, Mercury will stay
troubled by the adverse vitality of Mars for the remainder of this week at
least.

Furthermore, we are able to see that the angular separation of Mars and Rahu
(28°20) will roughly equal that of Saturn and Neptune (28°56) for
the subsequent few days.  That is an ongoing bearish affect since all 4
planets have bearish potentials, particularly Mars, Saturn and Rahu.  This
four-planet alignment will stay inside shut vary for longer than
normal since Mars is barely transferring a couple of arc minutes per day.   Definitely,
the presence of this bearish vitality makes a serious rebound a lot much less
probably within the close to time period and certainly makes additional draw back extra probably.

For extra particulars, try my weekly subscriber e-newsletter
which is printed each Sunday.   Along with reviewing the important thing
planetary and technical influences on US and Indian shares for the brief
and medium time period, I additionally present an astrological evaluation of potential
upcoming strikes in currencies, gold and oil.

These updates are often posted midweek.  You might be notified of recent posts by following me on Twitter.

Picture credit score: Mike Mozart