(5 July 2026)  US stocks rose last week as a tepid jobs report weakened the case for interest rate hikes later in the year.  The rotation out of AI-related tech stocks continued for a second straight week as investors sought opportunities elsewhere. The falling price of oil was another tailwind for stocks as crude finished below $70 for the first time since the start of the Iran war.

Last week’s gains were not unexpected given the bullish bias of Monday’s Mercury retrograde station. Despite its bearish reputation, our backtest study showed that Mercury retrograde is usually bullish when it is conjoins Jupiter as it did last week.  Our updated cumulative trend chart shows how the current alignment (red line) is tracking with previous Mercury stations when conjunct Jupiter.  If past performance is any guide, further upside is more likely as the mean and median lines are mostly higher 18 days after the date of the Mercury retrograde station.

Other alignments may be contributing to the overall bullish market sentiment.  The approach of the Jupiter-Uranus-Neptune-Pluto alignment on July 21 could also be supportive of gains in the month of July.  The backtest of the Jupiter-Uranus 60-degree sextile — one of the components of the larger July 21 alignment — showed that it is bullish in its own right.  The updated cumulative trend chart allows for some choppiness in the early phases of this alignment as its bullish effects tend to be focused after its exact alignment.  All other things being equal, this sextile is more likely to be positive for markets after July 11, which is 10 days before (“-10d”) the 60-degree alignment.  Moreover, it will remain a favorable influence well after its July 21 exact sextile date…

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