(20 December 2021) Stocks extended their sell-off to start the week after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin abruptly withdrew his support from President Biden’s ambitious Build Back Better plan.  Without Manchin’s decisive vote in the 50-50 Senate, the Democrats will not be able pass their $2 Trillion spending package that has been the centerpiece of Biden’s domestic agenda.  And if this additional fiscal stimulus isn’t forthcoming, the economy will become more vulnerable to a slowdown, especially in light of the impact of the rapidly-spreading Omicron variant.

The sudden withdrawal of fiscal stimulus was bad news for the stock market which had assumed these trillions of government largesse would eventually filter through the US economy and onto the corporate bottom line.  While further negotiations cannot be ruled out in the coming weeks, investors may have to rethink their earnings’ forecasts for 2022 without the help of Washington, DC.

We can see how Joe Biden is behind the planetary eight ball here.  Mars and Ketu are transiting his Ascendant (10 Scorpio) while Venus stationed opposite his Jupiter and Neptune is conjunct his IC (4th house cusp).  Mars-Ketu to the Ascendant represents frustration and anger from surprise developments, and the Venus-Jupiter opposition suggests expected rewards that do not come to pass.  Neptune to the 4th house cusp (IC) is a broader, slow-moving influence that symbolizes an inner weakness in Biden that makes it more difficult for him to realize his ambition.  Neptune is associated with confusion and lack of vitality so its placement on the 4th house cusp is very unwelcome at this critical time.

Underneath all these alignments lies the most telling chart affliction: transiting Saturn (16 Capricorn) square to his Mars (19 :Libra).  In several previous posts, I had suggested that Biden’s first year in office was likely going to be very difficult since this Saturn-Mars square was within range for the whole year.   At a general level, the Saturn-Mars square represents thwarted ambition, losses through anger, and actions that fail to deliver on its promises.

After stationing retrograde exactly square to his natal Mars back in May, Saturn is now gearing up to come back to that exact same point on January 16, 2022.  In other words, President Biden will likely continue to struggle to implement with his agenda for the next several weeks at least.  We can also speculate that Biden and the US are likely to suffer some additional frustrations and setbacks in January.

Today’s decline in the stock market coincided with the start of the 40-day Venus retrograde cycle.  Venus retrograde marks a period of time in which value and worth are subject to reappraisal and can sometimes mark a change in trend.  As a default setting, Venus retrograde should be considered a bearish influence although other planetary influences also should be considered.  Actually, the preceding Venus retrograde cycle occurred in May-June 2020 and marked a time when stocks actually rose.  But on that occasion, Venus was strong since it was in its own sign of Taurus and there were no powerful afflictions to other planets.  In other words, the fact of retrogradation was offset by other positive factors.

This time around the situation looks less favorable.  Venus is in Capricorn, a sign ruled by Saturn.  Moreover, Venus is also conjunct malefics Saturn and Pluto. We can also note that Saturn forms its third and final square aspect with Uranus this week on Wednesday, December 23.  This is another negative influence that could weigh on investors.  While short term rebounds cannot be ruled out in the coming days, the overall planetary outlook seems challenging.  The US stock market has been amazingly resilient during the pandemic, but these upcoming planetary alignments make me wonder how long this bull market can continue.

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