Are embattled global financial markets getting some help from an unseen hand? That is certainly the talk doing the rounds in investment newsletters in the United States which is washing up on our shores.
Some market commentators with a bent for conspiracy theories believe either the US Federal Reserve or a bevy of big investment banks are pulling the strings through the futures market to support US stocks.
With Wall Street ever the pace-setter for global stocks, that makes the story not only interesting but relevant to investors in Asia and the rest of the world. The conspiracy chatter really gained currency last month when Wall Street was in accounting-scandal free fall.
Exhibit A for the prosecution was July 15 when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 440 points only to miraculously rise in the final 90 minutes of the session to end 45 points down. In the broad market, however, losers beat gainers by three to one and trade volume at lower prices was double that of higher prices. For some, such as Kennedy Gammage, author of the Californian-based Richland Report, that day was an intervention smoking gun, indicating a 'crisis control team' had swung into action.
A financial columnist in the San Diego Union Tribune picked up this ball and ran with it.
'Sceptics believe that when the market is sinking too fast, the Fed and/or Treasury call the big houses on Wall Street and tell them to buy index futures and options,' a Tribune report said.