This chart reflects the bearish influence of the overlapping Venus and Mercury retrograde periods from Jan 14 until Jan 29.

Recent weakness has fit well with the ongoing Venus-Mars conjunction as bearish Mars tends to undermine the bullish bias of Venus, the planet of value.

Let’s see how long this unusually long Venus-Mars conjunction depresses stocks.  Gradually, Venus is catching up to Mars and will eventually separate from the conjunction on March 5, although it will remain within a close one degree conjunction until March 12 (shown here).   The speed of Venus is due to exactly match that of Mars this Thursday at 44 arc minutes and 33 seconds per day.

Other significant alignments worth watching at the Venus-Mars-Pluto triple conjunction on March 2, the Mars-Saturn conjunction on April 5 and the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction on April 12.

We can see that the January correction occurred during the simultaneous retrograde cycles of Venus (Dec 19-Jan 29) and Mercury (Jan 14-Feb 4).  Other factors no doubt played a role in the pullback, including the Papa Katari (scissors) Yoga as the Sun and Mercury were in-between malefics Saturn and Pluto.

Looking ahead, the protracted conjunction of Venus and Mars is likely to see some significant movement in the markets.  Since Venus is coming off its retrograde cycle, it is moving slower than usual and thus set ups a long conjunction with malefic Mars.  Using one-degree orbs, the Venus-Mars conjunction lasts from Feb 12 until March 12.

Other potential noteworthy alignments including the Mars-Saturn conjunction on April 4 and the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction on April 12.