(18 May 2025) Stocks pushed higher again last week as investors cheered the 90-day tariff pause between the US and China. The S&P 500 finished the week at 5958 and is now 23% above its April 7 low and just 3% below its all-time high. While the strength and speed of the rebound has been surprising, this recovery was to be expected given the range of bullish influences in the relevant charts. As I suggested in an April 5 post, the tertiary progressed alignment of the Sun and Jupiter in the NYSE chart was very bullish and argued for a significant rebound in April.
Other factors were also bullish and increased the likelihood of a significant rebound. Based on my study of the Jupiter transit to the natal Sun in the NASDAQ horoscope, there was solid evidence for gains around the time of this April 23 aspect. The study used a 40-day time window which had an average gain of 3.61%. For the current Jupiter-Sun aspect, this equated to the time period from April 3 to May 13. As it happened, this time period produced a much larger 9% gain than the average at 3.61%. But it underlined how all these various factors would be supportive of stock prices in April and May.
Another factor in play was the conjunction of Saturn and Rahu (North Lunar Node) on April 14. My statistical analysis showed that while the period immediately preceding the conjunction can be somewhat bearish, the longer 60-day time window associated with this conjunction is actually bullish. This was a surprising finding since both Saturn and Rahu (North Lunar Node) are considered malefic planets. The average 60-day returns were 2.51% for all Saturn-Rahu/NLN alignments and 4.46% for the Saturn-Rahu conjunction only.
As I wrote in my March 30 post, this would equate to 5779 on the SPX on May 14, which was 30 days after the April 14 conjunction or 5889 using the conjunction average only. While the data were clearly bullish I was skeptical about the prospect that stocks could climb that quickly. Amazingly, the SPX closed at 5892 on May 14 — just 3 points higher than the projected value from the study of previous Saturn-Rahu conjunctions. This was admittedly a bit of a fluke since there weren’t enough cases in the sample to justify such a precise prediction. Nonetheless, the prediction was directionally correct and provides an additional reason why stocks have recovered so strongly.
Saturn’s ingress into tropical Aries was another bullish influence that has fueled this rebound. My study of previous tropical ingresses (i.e. sign changes) of Saturn suggested that gains were more likely in the 40-day window around the May 24 ingress. Based on a sample of 48 previous ingresses, stocks gained on average 2.61% from 20 days before the ingress to 20 days after the ingress. For the current Saturn ingress, this equates to a period from May 4 until June 13 and projects a closing price of 5797 on June 13. While this is below the current price of the S&P 500, it has nonetheless is another reason why stocks have risen in the month of May.
Jupiter-30-Uranus
And we may identify another bullish factor at work in May: the Jupiter-Uranus alignment. On June 1, Jupiter will form an exact 30 degree alignment with Uranus. Given the relatively slow speeds of both planets, this alignment has been within effective range for a couple of weeks. Jupiter is a bullish planet, of course, and its alignments with Uranus are considered bullish. While Uranus is a neutral planet, it is believed to produce positive results when aligned with benefic planets like Jupiter and negative results when aligned with Saturn. The 30-degree alignment is not seen as powerful as the main aspects (conjunction, opposition, trine, square), however, as alignments with a higher divisor of 360 are seen as weaker. Nonetheless, I thought this upcoming June 1 alignment warranted a proper statistical analysis in order to gain some insights about its possible effects.
Results
For this study, I took the closing prices of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1898 to 2023 for all 30-degree Jupiter-Uranus alignments. This yielded a sample of 36 cases. We should note that the sample included both kinds of Jupiter-30-Uranus alignments — when Jupiter was 12 houses/signs from Uranus and when Jupiter was 2 houses/signs from Uranus. The June 1, 2025 alignment will have Jupiter 2 houses/signs from Uranus.
The data suggest that this alignment does indeed have a bullish effect with more than 60% of cases producing a positive result. The intervals with the strongest effects showed a bullish bias that was three times the expected value based on average annual returns. Taking the longest 60-day time window (first table column, “-30d 30d”), the average gain was 3.16%, with the bulk of the gain (2.33%) occurring in the 30 days preceding the exact alignment and just 0.83% of the gain occurring in the 30 days following the alignment. This conforms with a common astrological assumption that aspects and alignments tend to give their strongest results in the time leading up to the exact alignment. The other time intervals roughly follow this pattern.
When we divide the sample into two batches of the two different Jupiter-Uranus alignments, the overall pattern is the same but with a small difference. The alignments in which Jupiter is 12 signs from Uranus (i.e. it is 30 degrees behind Uranus) are a bit less bullish with a 60-day average gain of 2.93% of which 2.69% occurred during the 30 day before the alignment and 0.28% occurred after.
The batch in which Jupiter is two signs ahead of Uranus (i.e. it is 30 degrees ahead of Uranus) was a bit more positive. For the 60-day window, the average gain was 3.43%, of which 1.93% occurred before the alignment and 1.45% occurred after the date of the exact alignment. While this difference may not be that large, it is worth noting that the June 1, 2025 alignment will be the second type, in which Jupiter is 30 degrees and two signs ahead of Uranus. This may therefore be considered a slightly more bullish influence than would otherwise be the case.
Conclusions
The 30 degree alignment of Jupiter and Uranus is bullish. Although the average effect was only moderately strong at 2.33%, it is fairly consistent as 72% of cases were positive in the 30-day window leading up to the date of the exact alignment. It is not unreasonable to assume that part of the rise we have seen in May can be attributed to the approach of this alignment. And yet because its effect was quite small and the market has already advanced more than the average gain, it is unclear if we can expect to see stocks rise further into the June 1 alignment date. Taking May 2 and the S&P 500 at 5686 as the starting points of reference, we would project the SPX to be at 5818 by June 1 based on this Jupiter-30-Uranus alignment. However, since it is already trading well north of this level, it is possible that stocks may have difficulty moving beyond their current level of 5958. And yet as long as Jupiter is approaching its 30-degree alignment with Uranus, we would be justified in having a default bullish bias in the markets. After June 1, the argument for a bullish bias weakens considerably based on this alignment.
Of course, the Jupiter-Uranus alignment isn’t the only influence that is moving markets. There are countless others — some known and some unknown. The Saturn ingress into tropical Aries may yet to fulfill its bullish promise at least in terms of time as it reaches the 20-day post-ingress mark at June 13. However, given how far stocks have already risen, it is possible that we have already seen most, if not all, of the upside we will see from this influence. Time will tell.
Market Outlook — Week of 19 May 2025
Some fallout is likely from the Moody’s credit downgrade of the US this week. Monday would seem to be the most likely day for significant selling since the Moon forms a t-square with Mercury and Mars. That should concentrate the down days to the first half of the week. I would note that Mercury approaches a conjunction with Uranus later in the week. This could activate the ongoing Jupiter-Uranus alignment and see stocks rise again.
If May has been bullish, I would expect to see some downside at some point in June as Saturn conjoins Neptune and squares Jupiter. The second half of June looks more bearish than the first half.
