Is there Intervention in the Stock Index futures markets?
Did Japan’s finance ministry and the US Treasury intervene in the stock index futures markets, to prevent panic free-falls, and engineer short squeeze rallies? Only their floor brokers know for sure. But intervention also includes jawboning, painting rosy scenarios, downplaying bad economic news and sub-prime mortgage defaults, and pushing money into the hands of securities dealers through coupon passes. The US Plunge Protection Team (PPT) gave frazzled US investors a chance to catch their breath as the Dow Jones Industrials rebounded 226 points last week, after a 736-point plunge from its Feb 20th record high. But it has been almost four years since the Dow Industrials or the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 10% from a high, which is an exceptionally long period without such a pullback. Not even Tokyo’s financial warlords have been able to put together such as winning streak! The upcoming March 16th edition of Global Money Trends will examine the next likely move in the “yen carry” trade, w
