Stocks are being managed on light volumes.
At most times the markets are price discovery and capital allocation mechanisms.
Under the current Bernanke-Summers regime, they have become instruments of financial engineering, the shaping of perception, and government influence.
“Thus, it should be understood that when pro-US figures use the term, 'rules-based international order,' they are not referring to anything analogous to the rule of law. Quite the opposite, they are using Orwellian language to describe a system in which essentially no rules can be established and/or observed, given that the dominant state has the prerogative to violate and/or rewrite “rules” at its whim.” Aaron Good, American Exception