Market Preview for the week beginning February 13, 2023

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NOTE: There will be no free weekly column released next week due to preparations for the February 19 “Annual Worldwide Webinar and Address on Forecast 2023 with Raymond Merriman.” See Announcements below for further details to register.

Review and Preview

President Biden boasted during his State of the Union address about cutting the deficit by a record $1.7 trillion. His putative conversion into a born-again deficit cutter is belied by this week’s Congressional Budget Office federal budget report for January, which shows the deficit has doubled in the first four months of this fiscal year. CBO reports that the budget deficit from October through January swelled to $522 billion from $259 billion in the same period last year. Receipts are tracking $43 billion lower than last year, mostly owing to reduced individual income taxes, while spending is running $220 billion higher. Wall Street Editorial Board, “Biden Tells a Deficit Fairy Tale,” February 10, 2023.

Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true. – Yogi Berra

And the Sun is not even into Pisces yet.

Still, Venus and Neptune are in the sign of the fish, on their merry way to a union on February 15. Everyone loves a fairy tale with a happy message, and that’s one of the roles Neptune and Pisces play in our otherwise critical and often too realistic world where danger always seems nearby. We need an escape. And we have a president with several planets in the 12th house (same theme as Neptune and Pisces) who is more than willing to trumpet the narrative that the economy is doing just great. Low unemployment, great new job’ numbers, and a strong stock market, all have the scent of success.

Beneath that glamorous exterior, however, is the stench of out-of-control debt, which does not bode well for the future. If your credit card company allows you to increase your credit limit fourfold, and you spend that money, it looks like you are doing very well. But what doesn’t show up so soon is the fact that your debt has just quadrupled too. On top of that, you have to pay more interest on that debt. Somewhere down the road the pavement ends and the cycle turns from success to distress if you continue to live on borrowed funds. And the turn quickly escalates from slow, at first, to very fast. This is especially true if the layoffs announced by tech companies start to increase as well.

Last week continued the topsy-turvy pattern of stock markets still looking for sustained direction. Most stock markets have been up this year following their half-cycle lows in mid-late December, but the rallies have not been that robust. And following last week’s deadly “full moon in a T-square with Uranus,” coinciding with an earthquake striking Syria and Turkey, most global equity markets started to trend down.

Metals showed signs of life early last week after the prior week’s sudden collapse, but by Thursday, they resumed their downtrend to new multi week lows. Bitcoin also dropped from its recent high of February 2, falling nearly 10% by the end of the week. Crude Oil, on the other hand, was up all week following its monthly low last Monday at 72.25. By Friday, it was trading above 80.00. That may be a market to watch this week as Venus conjoins Neptune in Pisces.

Short-term Geocosmics

If you don’t know where you are going, you might end up someplace else. – Yogi Berra.

I am a Yogi fan today.

Writing immediately after a second lens replacement therapy is like going to battle under a Neptune affliction. Everything is blurry and mistakes in typing are far too numerous for this double Capricorn with Virgo rising to appreciate. Fortunately though, I also have Neptune rising in my natal chart (lots of supportive editors) with Uranus on my MC (my calling is the cause of astrology and truth), so the double Capricorn part of my self will always plow on and do his duty, come illness, rain, snow, or… fog. Let’s see: did I just type fog or frog? Or am I still rummaging around with that groundhog from the prior week?

But help is on the way for this Neptune-challenged world I have been lost in for two weeks, with less than another week to go. That is, this week finds two fairly important conjunctions occurring. The first is Venus conjunct Neptune in Pisces on February 15 and the second is the Sun conjunct Saturn in late Aquarius on the next day. The first one is favorable for love and romance, which will probably be at full strength the day before, on Valentine’s Day. It may be be good for those who have been operating in a fog. Or at least those who can delude themselves into believing it will be so. With Neptune in Pisces highlighted by the conjunction of Venus, you can believe whatever you want and for one day your dreams may come true. Just remember to exit that position before the day is over, or it will be Groundhog Day all over again. The shadow lurks nearby, even the next day.

As romantic and imaginative as the Venus/Neptune conjunction in Pisces can be, the next day’s Sun/Saturn conjunction in Aquarius can have the opposite effect. One is a euphoric buzz and the other is a buzzkill. The Venus/Neptune conjunction takes place with the Moon in Sagittarius too, Monday-Wednesday, which is by nature optimistic. But the next two days will find the Moon in Capricorn. It’s time to sober up quickly by midweek as the psychological climate transitions from fantasy/infatuation into reality very quickly. Both are relatively strong aspects for brief but sharp swings in stock indices. If the rush down is sharp, it may be a primary cycle trough in stocks. However, these geocosmic signatures are not as strong as what will arise next month. Still, the general rule is that any market declining into a strong Saturn aspect is a candidate for a rally to follow.

The geocosmic tapestry suggests that a lot of what we can expect for the year may not be known until next month, especially nearby to the third and final semi-square passage of Jupiter and Saturn on March 21.

According to the cosmos, clarity begins to appear once we get to spring. Constructive planning begins to get underway that can have positive benefits for the world as Jupiter moves from semi-square to sextile with Saturn. However, there is one major cosmic interruption in late May when the T-square of Mars-Jupiter-Pluto unfolds. If there is going to a be a financial panic, that is the aspect that foretells it. We will cover that in next weekend’s Forecast 2023 Webinar. I expect to see clearly again by then.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

	Events ONE MORE WEEK!!! February 19, 2023: ANNUAL MMA FORECAST 2023 WEBINAR with Ray Merriman. Save the Date! Starts at 11:15 AM, MST, which is 1:15 PM EST, 6:15 PM GMT, 7:15 PM CET. It will be very early in the morning in Australia, Beijing and Tokyo. In the comfort of your own home or office, you can tune into Raymond Merriman’s annual worldwide Forecast 2023 Webinar. This broadcast will address themes from this year’s Forecast 2023 Book, with updates on financial markets since the book was written in November 2022, including the U.S. stock market, Gold, Silver, Crude Oil and Bitcoin. Cost is $55.00/€ 53, and includes the slides of the presentation, plus access to the video recording of the event. Questions will be answered that are submitted one week before the event if they are deemed of interest to the overall audience. If you are unable to attend live, the video recording will be available the following day. To register, click here>>
	The February issue of the MMA Cycles Report and Netherlands SMT Cyclus Nieuwsbrief will be released this week!   (Tuesday morning European time in English version!) Every issue provides an intermediate-term investors’ and near-term traders’ outlook for the U.S. stock market, Gold, Silver, Copper, Treasuries, Euro Currency, Crude Oil, and Soybeans, and every SMT Cyclus Nieuwsbrief issue (Dutch sibling) adds the Dutch AEX Index, written by MMA Analyst Irma Schogt to it. Every issue provides an intermediate-term investors’ and near-term traders’ outlook for the U.S. stock market, Gold, Silver, Copper, Treasuries, Euro Currency, Crude Oil, and Soybeans. Each issue also contains MMA’s original geocosmic critical reversal dates (CRDs) and Solar/Lunar reversal dates over the next several weeks for DJIA, Gold, and Silver, complete with trading strategies for position traders during the next month. If you are not a subscriber to the monthly MMA Cycles Report and would like a copy of MMA’s outlook for financial markets, consider trying the January issue for only $35. Read more>>
	REGISTRATION IS NOW OFFICIALLY OPEN FOR ENROLLMENT INTO THE 2023-2024 MMTA (MERRIMAN MARKET TIMING ACADEMY) TRAINING PROGRAM.   We would like to thank those who have applied and inform our readers that about half of the available spots for entrance into this 2023-2024 program have now been filled. Applications to this series of MMTA courses will remain open for the discounted tuition rate until March 11 or until all slots are filled. Course 1 begins on March 18. This is your chance to learn how to analyze and identify important time bands for market reversals in financial markets for traders and investors alike. This is the most complete course offered anywhere on the integration of cycles, geocosmics, trend studies, price objectives, chart patterns, and technical analysis. If you want to become a better trader, investor, or an analyst for traders and/or investors, this is the course for you! This will be the last MMTA program co-hosted by Raymond Merriman. For further information or assistance with applying, or regarding the program and course schedule, please contact us by email>>
	Outlook 2023 on The Netherlands' AEX Index is a clear analysis of what is to be expected for the Netherlands' AEX Index in 2023. Written by MMA Analyst Irma Schogt,with monthly chart as of December 2022 and a list of critical reversal dates for 2023. available in PDF format. The international market reports for 2023 that are available separately in English include: Japan’s Nikkei, China’s Shanghai Composite, and the German DAX plus Zurich SMI indices. Each is available in PDF format. Each report is about 9-11 pages, with their monthly charts as of November 2022, and a list of their critical reversal dates for 2023.
	March 18-April 29, 2023: Cycles and Patterns in Financial Markets. This 6-week online course will take place for 2.5 hours every Saturday (except April 8), starting at noon, Eastern Time. If you are interested in how cycles work and how to use them to time your investments or positions trades for maximum profit potential, this is the course for you. There is no astrology in this 6-week course. It purely identifies cyclical time bands for long-term investment and short-term position trading. You will learn to speak the language of cycles as they pertain to financial markets, and to understand what constitutes a bullish or bearish trend via cycles and their relationship to the proper moving averages. You will also learn the three type of cycle patterns in bull and bear markets and what strategy to apply in each phase of the cycle. After this course, you will see charts and their patterns like never before. Charts will not appear random anymore. And each class will end with a discussion of how these methods apply to the current markets in the week ahead. This will also be the first course (of 8 courses) of the MMTA (Merriman Market Timing Academy). You do not need to be enrolled in MMTA to take this course unless you also aspire to be a graduate of MMTA over the next two years. It is open to everyone. The cost for this course is $2500. To sign up, click here>>   “My perspective on the markets, and perhaps life, have changed dramatically since being gifted the privilege of joining MMTA2. I am extremely grateful for having been given the opportunity to learn directly from you.” – Kyle M, MMTA2 graduate, North Carolina, programmer, trader, and high school math teacher. “Attached is my final research project on the cotton market…as always critiques are welcomed!! Doing these research projects and really dissecting the cotton market during this course has allowed me to trade cotton very successfully over the last year. It is extremely rewarding to do the work and then to watch it unfold according to plan.” – Wyatt F, Wisconsin, MMTA2 graduate, Owner of large family farm operation, and now an MMA analyst. ”Thank you for all your help through MMTA2, it was one of the best things I have ever done.” – Renato R, Australia, MMTA graduate.

Disclaimer & State of Purpose

The purpose of this column is not to predict the future movement of various financial markets. However, that is the purpose of the Schogt Market Timing & MMA (Merriman Market Analyst) subscription services. This column is not a subscription service. It is a free service, except in those cases where a fee may be assessed to cover the cost of translating this column from English into a non-English language. 

This weekly report is written with the intent to educate the reader on the relationship between astrological factors and collective human activities as they are happening. In this regard, this report will oftentimes report what happened in various stock and financial markets throughout the world in the past week, and discuss that movement in light of the geocosmic signatures that were in effect. It will then identify the geocosmic factors that will be in effect in the next week, or even month, or even years, and the author's understanding of how these signatures will likely affect human activity in the times to come.

The author (Merriman) will do this from a perspective of a cycle's analyst looking at the military, political, economic, and even financial markets of the world. It is possible that some forecasts will be made based on these factors. However, the primary goal is to both educate and alert the reader as to the psychological climate we are in, from an astrological perspective. The hope is that it will help the reader understand these psychological dynamics that underlie (or coincide with) the news events and hence financial markets of the day.

No guarantee as to the accuracy of this report is being made here. Any decisions in financial markets are solely the responsibility of the reader, and neither the author nor the publishers assume any responsibility at all for those individual decisions. Reader should understand that futures and options trading are considered high risk.