Review and preview
The United Auto Workers officially went on strike against the “Big Three” Detroit automakers early Friday, potentially imperiling an already-fragile U.S. economy. An extended work stoppage risks causing billions in damage to the economy…. Still, the strikes are limited in scope so far as the UAW seeks to preserve its $825 million strike fund, which would support a walkout for about 11 weeks by the 146,000 union members. – Megan Henney, “UAW strike Could Slam the US Economy,” www.foxbusiness.com, September 15, 2023.
“It’s the one constant in life. If you build something worth having, someone’s going to try to take it.” – Kevin Costner as John Dutton, in “Yellowstone,” Series 3, Paramount Pictures.
Last week’s New Moon in the working sign of Virgo, as its ruler Mercury, ended its retrograde cycle, bringing us a huge automotive labor strike by the UAW. Yet, in spite of this critical work stoppage, the major stock indices of the world performed rather well after a slow start.
In Asia and the Pacific Rim, the Australian ASX, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, and Japan’s Nikkei indices all made secondary lows to the primary cycle on Monday, September 11. But each also rallied smartly into the end of the week. China was an exception, as it was flat for most of last week. India’s NIFTY index, on the other hand, was the global star as it surged to a new all-time high last week following its successful hosting of the recent G-20 summit. India has now established itself as the new world’s darling of economic progress.
In Europe, the Netherlands AEX, German DAX, and Zurich SMI indices all pulled back into secondary lows on Wednesday, September 13. Each then exhibited nice gains into Friday. London’s FTSE index did not follow the same course. It was strong all week, rising to its highest level since May on Friday.
In the Americas, Brazil’s Bovespa index was stellar, rising smartly into Friday after secondary lows the prior week. The DJIA, S&P, and NASDAQ all followed a similar course. That is, they made secondary lows the prior week, September 6-8, then rallied into Thursday-Friday, but to new cycle highs. Each then fell into Friday.
Although word equity markets were mostly positive last week, they were not very exciting except in the case of India and Brazil. That could change this week (see next section).
In other markets, Gold and Silver were weak into Thursday, September 14. However, each rallied smartly on Friday. Mars in Libra (August 27-October 12) is typically a time when metals are lackluster (but equities are bullish). Bitcoin and Ethereum were interesting as each plummeted to new multi-month lows on September 11, but then staged a somewhat impressive rally after that. But the real star last week was Crude Oil, which soared to over $90/barrel for the first time this year. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves are still down nearly 21% from a year ago, which means President Biden did not fill up those reserves he sold the prior year as he indicated he would when prices dropped to 62.00-67.00 earlier this year. Now it will cost about 50% more to do so at today’s prices.
Short-term geocosmics and longer-term thoughts
Trade wars, like all wars, empower government as plowshares are beaten into swords. The first casualty of a trade war is economic freedom; the second is prosperity. – Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux, “Trump’s Trade War Was a Loser: Tariffs Destroyed Jobs in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and Made All Americans Worse Off,” Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2023.
Even though he’s under increased scrutiny as a teller of untruths, Mr. Biden unleashed a whopper this week, on 9/11, after the morning’s commemorations, when he claimed in a speech that he’d rushed to Ground Zero the day after the attack. He hadn’t, and the White House quietly admitted as much; he visited the site with a congressional delegation on Sept. 20, 2001… It’s possible Mr. Biden has been telling these stories so long he’s become convinced they’re true. The disturbing consideration is that while repeated lying is a characterological fault, not knowing you’re lying might suggest a neurological one. – Peggy Noonan, “Biden Can’t Resist the ‘River of Power,’” Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2023.
Last week was a New Moon in Virgo, and typical of heightened Virgo energies, it is more challenging than usual to not be a skeptic or critic of…everything. But also typical of a New Moon, stock markets are generally positive as they were on Thursday, September 14, the exact date of one.
Last week also ended with the conclusion of this current Mercury retrograde cycle, otherwise known as “the Trickster.” So, there was a big rally in several stock markets during the New Moon, as the DJIA soared over 300 points. But Friday, the day Mercury ended its retrograde motion, there was a big down day as the DJIA lost nearly 300 points. This is how the Trickster often behaves. First, a buy signal, then a sudden reversal to a sell signal. One fake-out after another, but the final result is often a net zero.
Next week may be different. This weekend finds the Sun trine the disruptive Uranus, but Venus square the exaggerated Jupiter. This is followed by the Sun/Neptune opposition on September 19 and Sun/Pluto trine on September 21. Of these, the Sun/Neptune is the most important in our work. It is considered a Level One signature, the most consistent of correlations to major reversals in stock indices, usually within only four trading days. Neptune is also the co-ruler of Crude Oil, along with Jupiter, and since both are highlighted this week, we need to be alert to a possible pullback in Crude Oil prices, which just surged to their highest level of this year.
Even though markets look more exciting next week, it all appears to be a setup for some really major fireworks in financial markets to take place after Mars enters Scorpio on October 12 (and maybe one week before as it squares the lunar nodes and Pluto), lasting through November 24.
Summer will end next week (September 23), and it will be time to get back to work (unless you work for a major automobile company) and start looking closely at developing trading plans for October-November. This is when we see the most exceptional trading opportunities arising for the remainder of this year. With Mars in Scorpio looming, it is also the time when we anticipate the ongoing political dramas will yield some explosive revelations. This is not the time to be caught in a lie. If you are, it may be the end of that relationship and the privileges it affords you. There is no mercy for dishonesty when Mars is in Scorpio.
