There is an interesting astronomical consideration regarding the current stock market sell-off that suggests we are currently in the midst of a full-scale crash (by “crash” I mean a 20-50% plunge in stock prices in a matter of a few trading days).

Several years ago, a stock market analyst named Steve Puetz checked to see if there was a relationship between eclipses and market panics. He studied eight of the greatest crashes in financial history, from the Holland Tulip Mania of 1637 to the Nikkei collapse of 1990. He found that market panics tend to occur around the time of full moons, and that the greatest number of crashes start after the first full moon after a solar eclipse, when that full moon is also a lunar eclipse. Puetz discovered that all eight crashes occurred six days before to three days after a full moon that occurred within six weeks of a solar eclipse. The odds of that being a coincidence, according to Puetz calculation, is less than 1 in 127,000. (See related article.)

As for the current juncture, there was a key solar eclipse on June 10^th  of this year.  This solar eclipse was the first since the solar eclipse on December 14^th of last year that Chris Carolan argued years ahead of time would mark a historic top in the U.S. stock market based upon his "Spiral Calendar" theory. (The Spiral Calendar is a market timing system drawn from Carolan's observation that the time periods between market extremes is a function of lunar cycles and solar eclipse cycles.)

According to Steve Puetz theory, the ‘crash window’ in the wake of the June 10^th solar eclipse would be from six days before to three days after the full moon on June 24^th, which was also a lunar eclipse, or from six days before to three days after the full moon tomorrow, July 14^th.  In other words, the likely timeframe for a stock market crash in 2002 would be between June 18^th and June 27^th or between July 17^th and July 26^th. 

Since July 17^th, U.S. stock prices, as measured by the broad S&P500 index, have fallen more than 11 percent.  Thus, in the wake of the June 10^th solar eclipse, the Puetz crash window around the July 14^th 2002 full moon looks like it may be right on the mark.