Mal ein wenig Backgraound zu den fleissigen Jungs (und Mädels?) vom PPT:
The PPT Leaves Obvious Market Footprints
If there were any doubts about the PPT (Plunge Protection Team) being active in this market, you have probably changed your views by now. There have been 3 significant intraday upside reversals over the last 2 weeks, following negative subprime or related news.
The Plunge Protection Team Exposed
(ein 'imaginäres' Interview - vermutlich damit 'Bob' keinen Ärger mit seinem Brötchengeber bekommt)
Mish: Was that the PPT?
Bob: Of course it was. Look at the chart.
Mish: A bounce on the 200 EMA was the PPT? Was this expected?
Bob: Heck yes it was expected. The PPT always shows up when expected.
Mish: Always? That's interesting. Did you play for it?
Bob: Are you kidding? Of course I did. Who wants to stand in front of the PPT?
Mish: So you bought right on the 200 MA?
Bob: Damn straight. I knew the PPT was waiting there.
Mish: What else has the PPT been buying?
Bob: Homebuilders. Isn't it obvious?
Mish: Homebuilders?
Bob: Yep. They have been buying homebuilders for months. And lenders like Countrywide Financial too.
Mish: Wow. That's stunning news. But it does not seem to be working very well does it? Look at BZH and AHM and CFC.
Bob: Don't get me started. Of course it's working. Share prices would be much lower if the PPT was not propping them up daily.
The “Plunge Protection Team” Working Overtime to Save US Stock Market
Sehr interessanter, tiefgehender Artikel über das Wirken des PPT.
[...]
However, the PPT wouldn't stand idle and allow the panic swirling around the Wall Street power brokers to turn into a crisis. “The market understands, that the Fed will act in due time, if and when evidence accumulates that action would be appropriate,” said St Louis Fed chief William Poole on July 31st.
On the morning of August 3rd, the PPT was faced with a renewed assault on the stock market, when US dollar plunged 1-yen to as low as 118.20-yen in the first hour of New York trading, following a weak US jobs report in July. [...]
PPT spin-meisters began twirling the data. On August 3rd, the White House's top economic adviser Edward Lazear said, “Job growth continues, even in a period when we are seeing changes in the US economy, most of which were positive,” [...] But there is still much skepticism over the reliability of the employment figures.
Traders are puzzled over why the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown no change in the number of construction jobs from eighteen months ago, even though homebuilding activity has dropped dramatically. [...]
An alternative estimate, based on data used to develop the ADP National Employment Report, suggests that employment in the construction industry [...] is now 139,000 below the government's official estimates.