Raymond Merriman is a well-known financial astrologer (not, by the way, the gentleman in this photo) who writes this week:

In the meantime, it is encouraging (and reassuring to those of us who study Financial Astrology) to see geocosmic signatures once again correlating with sharp reversals in equity markets. I realize it may be unsettling for those who own stocks, and I do not mean to imply that sharply falling stock prices is a “good thing.” . . . It seemed that almost every geocosmic reversal signature failed to stop this “blow off” in equities since that time, with the exception of February 26-March 5.

Merriman asks whether perhaps Pluto, p.o.ed at his demotion, caused the planets to start working. I instead have correlated this refusal of the markets to listen to planetary doomsayers with the relentless optimism of Pluto in Sagittarius which has now been joined by Jupiter in Sag. For months stocks have risen as the result of investors’ optimism that was unsupported by facts, and last week they fell as the result of pessimism due to a potential rise in interest rates. Still, by Friday the markets had recovered

After Mercury turns retrograde next week and Uranus changes direction on the 23rd there will be five planets retrograde plus Chiron. This is a fairly heavy retrograde period (although not as intense as last summer’s in which we had a whopping seven planets including Chiron in retrograde motion). I would expect some fallback in the markets during this period, particularly in light of the final faceoff between Saturn and Neptune in which our illusions (Neptune) are likely to be punctured by Saturn’s reality check.

Summer is never the best time for the stock market and this might be a good time to sell off underperforming stocks and wait for the retrograde period to end. Economists predict a drop in consumer spending as the result of a challenging housing market and this ties in well with the astrological signatures. Saturn will enter Virgo in September where it will want to impose caution and modesty in all areas, and we could see a pullback then, particularly after Jupiter leaves its own sign of Sagittarius in December and Pluto edges into Capricorn.