(30 November 2022) Stocks rallied today after Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggested that current economic circumstances may justify a smaller 50 point rate hike as soon as next FOMC meeting on December 14.  All the major indexes rose sharply on the remarks and the S&P 500 even finished above its 200-day moving average at 4080.  The rally follows some post-Thanksgiving weakness earlier in the week that had resulted from worries that lockdowns and protests in China may extend supply chain disruptions.   Covid-related supply chain disruptions have been one of the main drivers of inflation in recent months.

While the early week declines coincided with several bearish Mars alignments with Saturn, Mercury and Venus, today’s rally was surprising as it appeared to anticipate more favourable late week patterns, such as the Moon and Jupiter conjunction.   In addition, I thought that some early week declines were more likely since the angular separation of Mars-Uranus (=33) matched that of Saturn-Neptune (=33).  Both of these planetary pairs were bearish influences since each contained a bearish planet — Mars and Saturn.

One possible explanation for Wednesday’s strong rally is that this angular separation had moved past exact as Saturn’s forward motion had reduced the angular separation to a bit less than 33 degrees.   With both Mars and Uranus moving in slower retrograde motion, their angular separation remained fairly constant at 33 degrees, or 32 degrees 55 minutes, to be exact.  The negative effects of the two planetary pairs therefore diminished once they moved past their point of equal angular separation.

At the same time, we can see two bullish pairings approaching a point of greater resonance.  Jupiter-Chiron (=13 degs 17 mins) is approaching the same angular separation of Sun-Mercury (= 12 degrees 11 mins).  Since Mercury is the faster of the two planets, this angular separation is widening every day and will exactly match the angular separation of Jupiter-Chiron on Friday.  While I expected some late week upside on this four-planet alignment, today’s rally arrived a bit ahead of schedule and with considerably more force.

While some follow through to the upside is very possible from this pattern, next week’s Sun-Mars opposition on the Full Moon on Wednesday and Thursday looks more bearish.

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