(2 November 2025)  Stocks rebounded last week as the Fed delivered a widely-anticipated interest rate cut of 25 basis points.  While investors welcomed the move, Chair Jerome Powell dampened expectations for further cuts this year citing the interruption of economic data as a result of the ongoing government shutdown.  Some positive corporate earnings also boosted sentiment and kept the indexes to within 2% of their all-time highs.

Despite the gains, the month of November begins with some planetary headwinds.  In last week’s post, I noted the possible bearish influence of the upcoming 120-degree Jupiter-Saturn alignment on November 17.  While it is negatively correlated with stock prices, this alignment only reached statistical significance on a small number of its tested time intervals.  Most of the other intervals showed only moderately negative results that failed to reach the p<0.05 significance threshold.  This means that any downside expectations should be tempered with appropriate caution.  Nonetheless, this Jupiter-Saturn alignment will remain within effective range this week and thus could serve to undermine market confidence from now until perhaps November 17.

Mars-180-Uranus

Another aspect to watch this week is Tuesday’s 180-degree opposition aspect between Mars and Uranus.  This pairing forms about once every two years and represents a volatile blend of Mars’ assertive energy with the unpredictability of Uranus.  Mars-Uranus aspects are seen as manifestations of high octane energy which carry a risk of instability and interruption of the status quo.

The Mars-Uranus opposition will be part of a larger alignment this week as Mars will also form a 120-degree trine aspect with Neptune and a 60-degree sextile aspect with Pluto.  These additional Mars aspects suggest that the quick-acting and volatile Mars energy may well find several different outlets this week.  But the opposition aspect between Mars and Uranus stands out as more potentially troublesome for financial markets as it carries overtones of sudden or shocking events that can be destabilizing or even violent. Given the symbolism attached to both planets, the standard deductive assumptions of astrology can often paint an ominous picture of this Mars-Uranus combination.   But to what extent are these assumptions actually true?

Method

To answer this question, I compiled a sample of the past 40 Mars-Uranus oppositions from 1960 to the present.  Then I recorded the closing prices of the S&P 500 at 3-day intervals across a 30-day time period before and after each Mars-Uranus opposition.  The choice of a 30-day window was based on the convention that effective opposition aspects have between a 5 to 10 degree orb.  Since Mars moves on average about 20 degrees in 30 days, this would cover a more generous 10-degree orb before and after the exact alignment.

Based on Western astrological principles, my working hypothesis is that stocks should tend to dip during the time around the opposition, especially in the days leading up to the exact aspect.  As a rule, there should be some mean reversion in the days following the alignment.  If the effects have been negative leading up to the alignment, then we would expect a more bullish bias in the days after the aspect.  The table below shows closing prices of the S&P 500 before and after the Mars-Uranus alignment.  “‘-15d” is the price 15 days before the opposition and “0d” is the price on the day of the opposition.  Where this day falls on a holiday or weekend, the next closest daily closing price was used.

Results

The results were disappointing.  The summary statistics table below shows that no tested interval reached the statistical significance threshold of p<0.05.  That said, some intervals had an average and median that was below the expected values.  The first column (“-15d 15d”) shows an average price change of 0% compared with an expected price change of 0.59%, pro-rated from a 7.2% average annual return from 1960 to 2023.  The median (-0.07%) was also below this expected value and suggested that this alignment may well carry a bearish influence.  However, most other intervals were neutral or bullish compared with the expected values.  This includes the shorter 3- and 6-day intervals around the exact opposition.

A somewhat more bearish picture emerges when we examine the cumulative trend chart, however.  (see below)  The cumulative trend chart compares the relative price changes during the course of the 30-day window using the 15-days before the opposition as the frame of reference.  The average and median lines are mostly below the expected line, although the median line does cross above it in the period after the exact opposition.

The chart raises more questions than it answers.  Why would the beginning and ending of the time window be the most bearish period?   This is an unexpected result that does not conform with our expectations about Mars-Uranus alignments.  Curiously, the first interval at “-12d” was sufficiently bearish that it actually was statistically significant.  (see table below)  While this may be a statistical artifact of the arbitrary starting point of 15 days prior to the alignment, it also suggests that the preceding time period before the alignment may be negative.  The final intervals at 12d and 15d were also below the expected line and suggests another bearish period may occur well after the exact alignment.

Conclusions

So is the Mars-Uranus opposition bearish? Yes, maybe a little, but not in the way we would expect. The evidence suggests the period immediately before and after the exact opposition is largely neutral on average.  Any bearish effects are only evident more than a week before and more than a week after the exact opposition.  Just when the maximum effect of this alignment may occur is harder to say since the time window under consideration was limited to 30 days. It is possible that the full negative impact may be either before or after this 30 day window.

Implications for this week

Since there is not much of an effect in the 3 days before and after the Nov 4 exact opposition, we should not be quick to assume any additional bearish influence this week.  That being said, we should note that Thursday’s Moon-Mars-Uranus alignment could be a catalyst that brings out any latent negativity in that Mars-Uranus alignment.

Whatever the effect of the Mars-Uranus opposition, the week as a whole may still be vulnerable to some downside since the Jupiter-Saturn alignment is moving closer to its near-exact alignment on Nov 17. As already noted, this is a stronger and more reliable influence that will could make life difficult for bulls this month.

Looking ahead to the following week, Mercury will turn retrograde on Monday, November 9.  This is another potentially important date for the stock market.  As our previous studies show, Mercury retrograde isn’t as bearish as many financial astrologers believe.  Evidence suggests it may be more instructive to think of its retrograde stations as potential turn dates in which prevailing price trends become subject to reversal.  The direction of change often depends on other factors that obtain at the time of the station.  My next post will address the coincident factors at the time of this upcoming Mercury retrograde station.