(19 July 2026) US stocks were mostly lower last week as the semi-conductor sell-off intensified on worries about AI-spending and profitability. While the NASDAQ fell by 4% on the week, the rest of the market experienced only a modest decline. Despite the 6-week pullback in high-flying technology shares, the NYSE Composite is still less than 1% from its July 6 all-time high.
The decline was a bit unexpected given the apparent bullish signature of the rare Jupiter-centered alignment, in addition to other ongoing influences. The so-called Barbault basket in which Jupiter aligns with Uranus, Neptune and Pluto on July 21 echoed similar alignments in 1911 and 1966. This very limited data (n=2) hinted at a bullish market bias from this alignment, although such a small dataset precluded any normal statistical assessment of probabilities.
One of the components of this multi-planet Jupiter alignment was the 60-degree Jupiter-Uranus sextile. Our backtest of 13 previous cases suggested that it was bullish during its 60-day test period. The updated cumulative trend chart actually shows the current alignment is tracking fairly well to the mean and median. Despite recent weakness, it is still above the mean and median and well above the benchmark average. Its 30-day post-alignment period (after July 21) shows a clearly bullish lean and provides some evidence for gains in August.
Other alignments also had a bullish bias. The aftermath of the July 4 Mars-Uranus conjunction suggested a mostly positive effect. The updated cumulative trend chart below shows that the current conjunction is still largely tracking the historical averages fairly closely. It is still above the long-term benchmark and is only slightly under-performing the mean and median of our sample from 1951-2024. We should also note that the backtest study was conducted on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) which has fared better than the NASDAQ or the S&P 500 in recent weeks. This may be one reason why results for the current Mars-Uranus conjunction are within target range of the historical norms…
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