Wall Street bonuses are generally paid at the end of the year, so to allow time for the usual meetings, performance is generally assessed through the end of November. This means a peak in illegal manipulation as managers attempt to add a few points to their performance. Even though the SEC is believed to frown on manipulation on the last day of the month, if ever there is a time when managers might risk a slap on the wrist, this is it. And the buy programs are rolling through. I didn’t check it myself, but someone I know said that the last day of November has not had a negative close on the Dow in the last 25 years.

It will be interesting to see if the funds holding Dell are able to rescue it by the close, currently it is down 13% or so in a strong market.

The actual data this morning was weak, except for the Chicago PMI which was stronger than expected.