(4 January 2023)  Some unexpected political drama is unfolding in Washington, DC this week as the US House of Representatives has yet to elect a Speaker.   Normally, this occurs on January 3rd when the winning party votes its Majority Leader to become Speaker and thereby becomes third in line to the presidency according to the US Constitution.  Although the Republicans won the most seats in the midterm elections, their party cannot settle on who should be the next Speaker of the House.

Kevin McCarthy is Majority Leader and was widely expected to win the largely procedural vote.   But the conservative wing of the GOP, the Freedom Caucus, has refused to join the rest of their fellow party members in supporting McCarthy, deeming him too moderate.  Thus far, McCarthy has lost all six ballots over the past two days and remains about 10 votes short of the necessary 218 to secure the Speaker’s chair.  Negotiations are ongoing to break the unprecedented stalemate with various compromises suggested such as veteran GOP Congressman Steve Scalise, or even a possible unity Speaker who would draw support from both parties.

Since we don’t know McCarthy’s birth time, any observations I might have are very much of the “back-of-the-envelope” variety which may well turn out to be wrong. Since we don’t know the time of the birth, we don’t know his Ascendant and hence none of the house placements or house rulerships of any of his planets.  And therefore we also don’t know his current major or minor dasha periods either, although it is likely the Saturn major dasha.

But we do know that his Scorpio Moon is his Chandra Lagna and it is currently receiving the helpful aspect from Jupiter in sidereal Pisces.  This is definitely a positive astrological asset for anyone to have when in consideration for a new job.  But the current state of uncertainty may be due to the Saturn (28 Capricorn) alignment with his natal Rahu (28 Taurus).  Close Saturn-Rahu aspects can coincide with situations where structures and traditions (Saturn) are called into question and authority is undermined (Rahu).

However, there are some favourable transits coming up for McCarthy over the weekend.  The Sun will conjoin his natal Venus (24 Sagittarius) on Sunday at the same time that Venus will conjoin his natal Sun (13 Capricorn).  These are both positive influences that suggest some kind of significant relief and perhaps even joy, although I wonder what other scenarios could emerge whereby McCarthy is happy given these Sun and Venus transits but he doesn’t become Speaker.  Well, DC politics is hard to figure at the best of times so perhaps even if some other GOP establishment candidate is found like Scalise, McCarthy could still exercise considerable influence over him.  And yet if McCarthy loses the Speaker’s chair it would represent a huge defeat for him.  I’m not sure the planets are sufficiently negative in the coming days for that kind of starkly negative outcome.  And if he can hold on until the weekend, then his chances would improve somewhat.

But if the Speaker is decided this week, then maybe McCarthy is more likely to lose. Scalise’s chart actually looks fairly good for early January, although it is also lacking a time of birth. Given the uncertainty in the birth data, I wouldn’t be surprised by any outcome in this stalemate.  But I would be less surprised if McCarthy is eventually named Speaker.

Weekly Market Forecast

US stocks have been mixed to start the New Year, although they closed higher today.  The gains were not unexpected given some of the positive transits such as the Venus-Jupiter alignment.

We can also spot some lesser bullish transits which could boost sentiment for a while longer here.  These are four-planet alignments based on angular separations involving benefics such as Jupiter.  So besides today’s Venus-Jupiter 90 degree alignment, there was also Mercury-Venus alignment (=11 degrees) which closely matched the current angular separation of Jupiter and Chiron (=10 degrees).  While these are not full-strength aspects, they nonetheless form a part of the overall planetary puzzle.

Further upside is also not impossible in the coming days since tomorrow’s Mercury-Pluto separation (= 9 degrees) will equal the Jupiter-Neptune separation.  The likelihood of further gains may also be seen in the fact that the Jupiter-Neptune separation (=9/10 degrees) will equal that of Jupiter-Chiron next week.  While this doesn’t guarantee further gains, it nonetheless could stave off the worst effects of the Saturn-Neptune alignment that is exact this coming Friday (Jan 6). This 9/10 degree separation will be replicated by other pairs of faster-moving planets next week, e.g. Monday’s Sun-Pluto pairing.

For more details, check out my weekly subscriber newsletter which is published every Sunday.   In addition to reviewing the key planetary and technical influences on US and Indian stocks for the short and medium term, I also provide an astrological analysis of potential upcoming moves in currencies, gold and oil.

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