Propping Continues As Shady Activity Seems To Ensure Market Does Not Fall. (NYSE:SPY)

[inthemoneystocks]

The markets are all hovering higher today. Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 up over half a percent on the day. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSE:SPY) is higher by .60%. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEIA) is up the same. Since the February 5th bottom, the markets have gone straight higher. Rumors and speculation jump out on why the markets have done this. Across the board, it is looking more and more suspicious. Suspicious? Yes, it is looking like there are other factors at work in keeping the market near the highs if not making new highs.

One interesting coincidence to look at is the President Obama tough talk. Where has it gone? Did anyone notice how Wall Street rebelled as soon as President Obama started talking about regulation for Wall Street? This started in mid January and Wall Street fought back. The markets tumbled drastically, dropping almost 10%. Since that happened, has anyone heard a peep from the President on Wall Street regulation? I think not! Anyone who thinks the markets are a true barometer of the economy needs glasses. Anyone who thinks that Wall Street and big business does not control the government also needs to be admitted into a psychiatric ward in my humble opinion.

As the markets trade higher, a few key stocks are pushing this market. Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) is making up for the previous lackluster days. It is surging 1.70%, a monster move for that stock! Of the oil plays, that is the leader today, no doubt about it. Technology is being headed by the semiconductors. The Semiconductor HOLDRs (ETF) (NYSE:SMH) is higher by 1.6%, a big move and even bigger, considering the SMH was up huge yesterday as well. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is having a average day, just up .65%. Financial stocks continue to lead the market, charged by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). JPM is up 1.75%.

Gareth Soloway
Chief Market Strategist
InTheMoneyStocks.com

[Cosmic]

Yeah, it is a bit of a manipulation game.

Part is the way the ETF's feed into a positive feedback game with the various indexes. But the more they run this game, the harder the sure to come fall. Those same ETF's will fuel the downside too, only faster. It all lacks the confirming factors one would look for in a real bull market, puny volume too in most cases. Not many true believers, me thinks.

At some point the money managers self interest and fear will over come greed. Some of this may be a type of positioning to allow the various players out at the top. Also do / think the opposite of what they are cooing.

Smart money is saying do not be long in any stock unless you know exactly why, not much left in any sector on the up side. For me everything pretty much is set up for a date certain type situation, if it works fine, if not I am gone after that date within limits.

What is being run now is a form of pysche game, not something based on any type of market fundamentals. Wall Street is happy to play along probably because they are so scared of the alternative.

They can not let Wall Street reflect the true condition of Main Street, after all they have those well deserved bonuses coming up again in a few months.

Talent that skilled must be retained at all costs.

[marketwatch]

If the hard hand of major regulation and oversight is not going to occur now, and it appears it won't, there needs to be at least some kind of regulation that is real that won't crush the markets. Once the economy (and employment rate) have returned to more favorable conditions I'd really like to see Wall Street hammered with regulation, oversight, and breakups of the institutions that allowed the meltdown to occur.

Unfortunately the risk of waiting for a healthier economy to return before throwing down the gauntlet is the risky behaviors that helped cause the meltdown will continue to go on unabated. And of course it's very predictable that anyone in power who could actually call for a massive overhaul of how Wall Street works during a boon in the economy will be accused by Wall Street and the talking heads on TV and radio of trying to sabotage a healthy functioning machine which they would say would harm Main Street thus no one will step up.

Finally, what if they actually did dig in? Started real invasive regulation, oversight, and broke up the firms that held the country hostage last March? Would the whole house of cards that this thing is seemingly built on collapse?

[DogDayTrader]

I have moved the thread to a more suitable venue.

There are good points made by all, and while I could probably sit here for hours typing out my view on the multiple topics raised in the previous posts, I do not have the energy to do so now. I will simply say that it is the largely due to the regulation and laws that are already in place that helped to cause the current situation. I am not saying that there are not those on Wall Street who acted recklessly and took on way too much risk. There are. But it is regulation that allowed them to do so.

Case in point, Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. Before the creation of theses two entities (which technically are private companies but heavily subsidized by the government, think USPS) a home owner had to prove that he/she was a creditworthy individual and put up a down payment in order to qualify for a mortgage. This was to ensure that the person backing the mortgage, and assuming the liability, would be repaid. To the lender this was a form of risk mitigation. Then along come Freddie and Fannie. Now instead of the person lending the money having to guarantee that he/she will pay back the loan, the federal government guarantees that the loan will be repaid, so if the person defaults on the loan the fed will take the hit. thus entered the era of federal backed mortgage securities. Can you guess what happened when the person lending the money no longer had to assume any risk? This is of course only a piece of a much more complex issue, but it makes my point.

What I am trying to say is that free markets can not work the way they are supposed to when you keep making more laws and regulation to influence the way they work. More regulation is not the answer, if the markets were left to sort things out for themselves we would all be better off. I will leave you with this questions to ponder.

If more regulation and oversight is the answer, how come the regulation and oversight failed to predict the recent events?

DDT

[Cosmic]

First I think it is a bit of the bot or machine trading schemes. Second it may be a very calculated move to pump up stock prices for the end of the Q.

So much seems to be at work, much of it interconnected that can not be understood as a seperate piece. I doubt you can regulate any of it out.

The chuckle is none of it is probably illegal. Even the now famous moves by Leman are apparently not then illegal or even so today.

Lehman Bros. used accounting trick amid financial crisis ? and earlier / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

A lot of it is mood management for all sorts of purposes. The sad part is Wall Street and the Washington crowd are now completely divorced from the American main street, they exist only for the benefit of a few. They do not know what is actually going on in the rest of the country or even care.

They have managed things thought to be totally impossible. The concept of supply / demand is corrupt. Gasoline prices will go up this summer even tho there might be a surplus of crude in real inventory.

Apparently the game played is to roll the markets around within relatively tight ranges and move money between areas that are cycled up and down in what amounts to a pair trading scheme. They always have the right play without any pure cheating. Allows various Guru's to seem almost God like.

A little bit like many of the lotteries are actually rigged but the average Joe hasn't a clue. Games too slick to even be understood if fully explained, nobody will believe it.

The crux of it all, the political system is badly broken, the financial system is even worse. All a game of pretend while the average citizen is shaken down in all aspects. Their attitude being we can manage it so the pain will never be able to be reacted to directly or they held responsible. A brave new World and as its end game puts the democracy itself at total risk.

[dilzniksan]

I believe that 3/31 is the official end of many of the bailout programs instituted by the Fed. What will this mean for the overall market?