(10 May 2022) As Democrats face the very real possibility of a shellacking in the upcoming November midterm elections, President Biden did his best to avoid taking responsibility for soaring inflation in today’s speech from the White House.   Citing inflation’s global scope, Biden instead focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Covid supply-chain interruptions as the primary causes of the relentless rise in prices across the US.

With the economic outlook deteriorating by the day, Biden had little choice but to shift blame elsewhere as his favorability ratings remain deeply in the red.  Given all the bad news, it’s not surprising that the stock market is now venturing into bear market territory (i.e. -20%) as more analysts consider the possibility of a recession by the summer after the negative Q1 GDP print.

Beset with problems on all sides, Biden appears to be flailing here in the hope that something sticks.  Today’s speech was a much-needed attempt to rally the nation but underlined the weakness of his political hand.  Perhaps not surprisingly, the speech coincided with the Mercury retrograde station.  As the planet of commerce and communication, Mercury’s retrograde cycle is said to highlight times when persistent issues should be addressed and rectified.  It is the time to review and reevaluate past mistakes in order to arrive at more workable and sustainable solutions.

Mercury turned retrograde at 10 Taurus — exactly on Biden’s 7th house cusp.  The timing of the speech embodied the powerful angular Mercury placement opposite his Ascendant at 10 Scorpio.  But looking at the whole transit picture, we can see that this Mercury retrograde cycle (May 10-June 10) may not be kind to Biden.  For its part, Mercury forms a close 75-degree alignment with Mars in the first half of the week.  While 75 degrees is not a full-strength aspect, it is nonetheless a multiple of 15 degrees and thus a divisor of the circle and has the potential to coincide with problems and frustrations (Mars) with communication (Mercury).

Also, we can see that the Saturn-Ketu square is still afflicting his chart.  Saturn (0 Aquarius) may have weakened somewhat as it has moved a bit past its square with natal Mercury (28 Libra), but Ketu remains closely conjunct.  The Ketu affliction to Mercury not only represents difficulties in communication, but it also reflects the weakness of the US economy since Mercury signifies commerce.  The current decline in the stock market can similarly be seen in terms of this double Mercury affliction from Ketu and Saturn.  Biden’s troubles are more likely to diminish once Ketu moves past its conjunction with natal Mercury next week or the week after.

But Biden may still be behind the eight-ball since Saturn will turn retrograde on June 4 and thus will once again form an exact square to Biden’s Mercury.  This suggests more bad economic and financial developments are likely in the month of June.

Similarly, we can see that the horoscope of the S&P 500 is afflicted this week by the Mercury Rx station and its alignment with Mars.  The additional problem here is that the Sun will conjoin Rahu later in the week (Friday?) and will highlight the Mars-Ketu conjunction at 28 degrees of Aries.  Whatever the immediate impact of tomorrow’s CPI report, the planets later this week do not look positive for the stock market or the US economy.

For more details, check out my weekly subscriber newsletter which is published every Saturday afternoon (EST).   In addition to reviewing the key planetary and technical influences on US and Indian stocks for the short and medium term, I also provide an astrological analysis of potential upcoming moves in currencies, gold and oil.