Housing situation in USA likely to remain difficult for some time

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Dear friends,

 

With transit JUPITER, as 6th lord of FINANCIAL STABILITY, at 22° 17' Sagittarius and in the most effective point of the 6th house of the SAMVA USA chart in applying conjunction with natal VENUS, as 4th lord of FIXED ASSETS, at 23° 51' Sagittarius and 6th house, raises concerns about LOSSES (a 12th house indication) associated with huge mortgage debts of the USA are increasing. The conjunction of transit Juptier and natal Venus is all the more important as the Venus-Jupiter period is operating.

 

At the same time, transit VENUS at 26° 02' Capricorn and 7th house is reciving a close aspect of natal 8th lord SATURN at 26° 47' Scorpio and 5th house. This temporary aspect adds a stressful impact on the housing situation, adding to the strain of the above aspect of transit Jupiter to natal Venus.

 

The applying aspect of transit Saturn at 10° 25' to natal 1st lord MOON at 7° 23' Taurus in the 11th house, is also adding to such concerns, as the Moon is a general indicator of housing.

 

The transit of Venus through Aquarius and 8th house from March 9 to April 2, would make the housing situation more difficult, especially when the conjunction of transit Jupiter and natal Venus becomes exact around March 15, 2008.

 

Saturn becomes stationary at 7° 45' in May, when its aspect to natal Moon becomes closest.

 

Finally, while the aspect of transit RAHU in the 8th house to transit 10th lord MARS in the 12th house is waning, the placement of Mars in 12th house is undermining the CONFIDENCE of investors. Mars remains in Gemini until early May 2008.

 

The stock market has declined in recent days, also today, even if the market closed well above the lows of the day.

 

DJIA 12213.8 -45.1 -0.37%

S & P 1326.75 -4.59 -0.34%

NASDAQ 2260.28 1.68 0.07%

 

Best wishes,

 

Thor

 

 

 

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U.S. Stocks Fall on Bernanke Plan, Oil's Retreat; Banks Decline

By Michael Patterson

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell, led by financial and commodity shares, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke urged banks to forgive more late loans and oil, gold and copper prices dropped from records.

Shares pared declines in the last hour of trading after CNBC reported a deal to bail out bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc. is progressing and Cisco Systems Inc. said any economic weakness will be ``relatively shallow.'' Citigroup Inc. tumbled to a nine-year low and helped drag financial shares to the lowest since August 2003 after analysts slashed earnings estimates. ConocoPhillips and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. led declines in energy and raw-materials shares.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 5.52, or 0.4 percent, to 1,325.82 at 3:48 p.m. in New York after earlier falling 1.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 64.48, or 0.5 percent, to 12,194.42. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 1.57, or 0.1 percent, to 2,260.17. Three stocks dropped for every two that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. European shares fell for a fifth day and Asia's benchmark index slid for a fourth.

``People get spooked when you have the Federal Reserve still talking about the weakness in the economy and banks' mortgage exposure,'' said Michael Mullaney, who helps manage about $10 billion at Fiduciary Trust Co. in Boston. ``It's a little bit scary at this juncture to step up and actually try to buy some stocks.''

Half of 10 industry groups in the S & P 500 declined today, sending the benchmark for U.S. equities to the lowest since Feb. 26. Bernanke warned in a speech in Florida that the housing crisis may deepen and he urged lenders to forgive portions of mortgages held by homeowners at risk of defaulting.

2008 Losses

The S & P 500 has retreated 9.5 percent this year on growing concern that the worst slump in profits since 2001 will continue after the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market sent banks' credit losses to $181 billion worldwide.

Citigroup fell 95 cents to $22.14. Merrill Lynch & Co.'s Guy Moszkowski said he expects $18 billion of credit writedowns related to the company's holdings of subprime mortgages, collateralized debt obligations, leveraged loans, consumer debt, real-estate loans and other investments. The analyst slashed his first-quarter estimate for Citigroup to a loss of $1.66 a share from a profit of 55 cents a share and his 2008 profit forecast to 24 cents a share from $2.74.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said today it cut its first- quarter estimate for Citigroup to a loss of $1 a share from a projection of a 15-cent profit due to a ``miscalculation in our model.''

Brokerage Downgrades

Goldman, the biggest U.S. securities firm by market value, slipped $1.36 to $163.73. Bear Stearns Cos. lost 8 cents to $77.24. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. retreated 17 cents to $48.44. Morgan Stanley declined 15 cents to $41.43.

The securities firms had their first-quarter earnings estimates cut by Wachovia analyst Douglas Sipkin on expectations the value of mortgage assets will continue to fall. Sipkin is at least the 10th analyst in the past two weeks to reduce profit estimates for the biggest investment banks.

Bank of America Corp. dropped 19 cents to $38.99. Wachovia Corp. declined 76 cents to $29.65. Merrill also cut profit estimates for the second- and fourth-largest U.S. banks.

Earnings at financial companies in the S & P 500 may drop more than 20 percent in both the first and second quarters, according to analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Energy Shares Retreat

Separately, the head of an investment fund controlled by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum said Citigroup and other financial companies may need additional capital as credit losses increase. Global banks and securities firms have already raised about $105 billion of capital amid losses on subprime-related securities.

Thirty-two of 36 energy companies in the S & P 500 fell as oil slumped the most since Feb. 1 on signs that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will leave production targets unchanged. Prices for gasoline and heating oil also declined. The S & P 500 Energy Index lost 1 percent, paring its gain over the past year to 33 percent. Crude futures rose to $103.95 a barrel yesterday, the highest since trading began in 1983.

ConocoPhillips, the third-biggest U.S. oil company, dropped $1.78 to $81.66. Lehman Brothers analyst Paul Cheng lowered his recommendation on the shares to ``equal weight'' from ``overweight.'' Cheng cut his earnings estimates for this year and next and wrote that the stock price may already reflect the impact of oil prices at $90 to $100 a barrel.

Exxon Mobil Corp., the biggest U.S. oil producer, dropped 66 cents to $87.09. Schlumberger Ltd., the world's largest oilfield-services provider, lost $1.66 to $85.32.

Freeport-McMoRan, Monsanto

Mining and agricultural companies declined after prices for copper, gold and corn fell from all-time highs.

Freeport-McMoRan, the largest publicly traded copper company, tumbled $3.88 to $99.57. The recent gains in copper prices pose a risk to demand from China, Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Newmont Mining Corp., the world's second-largest gold producer, dropped $2 to $50.38 after gold prices fell the most in a month as the decline in oil reduced the appeal of the precious metal as a hedge against inflation.

Materials Slump

Monsanto Co., the world's biggest seed producer, dropped $6.32 to $112.31. Corn tumbled the most allowed by the Chicago Board of Trade on speculation that overseas demand and U.S. animal-feed consumption will slow after grain prices reached a record yesterday. The drop today in oil and gasoline prices may also reduce demand for corn-based ethanol as a fuel substitute.

Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said today that the U.S. eventually must phase out federal incentives for corn-based ethanol in favor of cellulosic sources that don't compete with other crops for feed and food uses.

The S & P 500 Materials Index retreated 1.8 percent, paring its gain over the past year to 12 percent. The broader S & P 500 has dropped about 4.4 percent over the same period.

Intel Corp. lost 11 cents to $19.90. The company said gross margin, the percentage of sales remaining after deducting the cost of production, will be 54 percent, down from the 56 percent it predicted in January. Intel cited lower-than-expected prices of chips that store data in cameras and music players for the reduced forecast.

Brokerages including Goldman and UBS AG lowered their earnings estimates for Intel on concern that so-called flash- memory chips will undermine its main business of making computer processors.

Staples, Best Buy

Micron Technology Inc., the largest U.S. maker of memory chips, retreated 19 cents to $6.98. SanDisk Corp., the biggest maker of digital-camera memory cards, fell 17 cents to $22.88.

Staples Inc. dropped 36 cents to $22.13. The world's largest office-supplies retailer said fourth-quarter profit fell 1 percent on lower North American retail sales to small companies and consumers. The company cut its full-year forecast.

Best Buy Co. fell 85 cents to $42.43 after Bank of America downgraded the biggest U.S. electronics chain to ``neutral'' from ``buy.'' The absence of new television technologies in 2008 will lead to ``lackluster'' demand, analyst David Strasser wrote in a note to clients.

Barnes & Noble Inc. dropped $1.29 to $27.04. The biggest U.S. bookstore chain forecast profit that may miss analysts' estimates because of fewer bestsellers like J.K. Rowling's record-breaking ``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.''

Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. rallied $3.83, or 8.4 percent, to $49.50. A U.S. judge invalidated a patent on Bayer AG's Yasmin contraceptive. The ruling means Barr may be able to sell a generic version before Bayer's patent expires in 2020.

Fed Watch

Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said U.S. banks face ``challenging market conditions'' that will likely hurt earnings and consumer lending, requiring closer scrutiny from regulators.

The collapse of the housing market has led to ``a substantial deterioration in asset quality and earnings'' and will force bank holding companies to continue to write down assets, he said. State banks also face ``deteriorating credit conditions'' this year. His remarks came from written testimony to the Senate Banking Committee.

Fed Bank of Dallas President Richard W. Fisher said U.S. growth is likely to remain ``subpar'' through the end of June and it isn't certain such a slowdown will curb inflation. Fisher, who votes on rates this year, called his growth forecast one of the most ``bearish'' of all the Federal Open Market Committee members, who are estimating 1.3 percent to 2 percent for this year. He spoke today to the Society of Business Economists in London.

Traders priced in an 87 percent chance that the Fed will lower its benchmark lending rate by 0.75 percentage point to 2.25 percent by its March 18 policy meeting, according to Fed funds futures prices compiled by Bloomberg. The rest of the bets are for a 0.5 point reduction.

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