An overabundance of negative economic news and three market moving speakers created an avalanche that drove the stock market’s rapid retreat down the mountain, with the major indices erasing most of last week’s gains.

Describing the market’s action in terms of a mountain avalanche is befitting since the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter were aligned in Capricorn yesterday. Capricorn’s symbol is the mountain goat who seeks to ascend to the top of the mountain (representing the top of one’s profession and social standing). Venus (banking and finance) and Jupiter (growth and optimism) are traditionally considered beneficent energies, and the Moon represents our emotional outlook and the need to feel secure. In Saturn-ruled Capricorn these energies get contracted and reined in by the boundaries of Saturn’s rings.

Yesterday’s downdraft began in Asia after China’s purchasing managers index fell to a record low. Weaker than expected U.S. economic reports reflected contracting conditions not seen since the early 1980s. Around midday the economic high priests at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) officially declared the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, the month payroll employment peaked. This marked the end of a 73 month economic expansion that began in November 2001, when Jupiter (expansion) conjoined the USA’s Sun in Cancer (growth through real estate by using one’s nest as an ATM machine). Jupiter in its “home” sign Sagittarius conjoining Pluto on December 11, 2007 describes a boom that went bust. The timing leading to the recession can be traced to housing prices peaking in July 2005 as Saturn concluded its transit in Cancer begun in June 2003. The credit bubble burst after Saturn in Leo concluded its series of oppositions to Neptune in June 2007 that began in August 2006. Once Saturn entered Virgo, the sign of the accountant in September 2007, the numbers no longer added up. By the NBER’s measurement, the current recession is already longer than the 1990-91 and 2001 recessions that lasted eight months. If the recession extends beyond April 2009 which is a high probability, it will mark the longest downturn since the Great Depression.

The speakers who helped accelerate the downturn represented the energies of the Capricorn triple conjunction. Unlike the market’s performance, the lineup of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter was beautifully displayed in the early evening sky last night.

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke began speaking at 1:00 PM about “Federal Reserve Policies in the Financial Crisis.” With his Sun (self-identity) in Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius, Bernanke represents Jupiter.