I was surprised last night when stocks rose very solidly and sharply at about 10:00 pm local time, but didn't see any follow-through (see green maribozu candle spike higher at left side of chart). I was unable to locate a news event that caused this gain, an 80-point spike in the Dow within 15 minutes. It's enough to convince me of a conspiracy or government manipulation of some sort.Then, overnight, stocks failed to follow through with further gains, instead sinking back into negative territory to begin the trading day today. Pundits have indicated that until now, the stock market rebounded on faith, but so far, data has failed to confirm that faith with signs of lasting improvement. Thus, stocks have begun to sink again (chart shows declining trendl throughout the night). The right side of the 15-minute chart (above), and the shorter-term charts (below) show the story of steady declines. This morning's unemployment claims showed an increase, both in the weekly data and the 4-week average. This is not a sign of bottoming unemployment.
