Sunspots have a lot to do with weather trends. They also indicate during their cyclical rise and peak restlessness, anxiety, tension, increased accidents, conflicts, wars, pandemics (72% of the time), and human migrations. Low sunspot periods correspond with less energy and production, epidemic diseases (28% of the time), and generally more peaceful world state of affairs. Sunspots also generally reflect the lowest lows in stock market prices around minimum, and the highest high prices around maximum.

Sunspots declined in the latter half of the first decade of the 21st century. A low appeared in 2008. This correlated with a sharp stock market sell-off in October 2007 and the beginning of the Great Recession. The feared H1N1 flu did not become the next pandemic. And although widespread guerilla warfare continued in Afghanistan and elsewhere, the war in Iraq was winding down for America.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association predicts Sunspot Cycle 24 to be relatively weak with only 90 sunspots on average monthly. If the NOAA projections prove correct, the next peak will be the weakest since the peak of 1928.

A major stock market high is expected shortly after monthly sunspot averages first rise above 50. This is the “above 50 signal” that has accurately timed a series of high, then low, and now high again markets. The last rise above 50 happened in March 1998. The stock market promptly rose to its high in December 1999 (last sunspot maximum was in 2000). The NOAA projects sunspots to rise above 50 around January 2012. The exact month of this projection, however, is frequently adjusted. Sunspot maximum is also predicted to occur near June 2013. It is likely that a market high will occur between these dates (see News Before the News 2010 for specific stock market forecasts).

Although sunspots can be used as a general guide in finances, they more accurately time wars, pandemics, storminess and cooler weather, and mass human/animal migrations. Expect these conditions to get worse in the next several years.