Have you noticed this? Markets in Europe and Asia move in pace with the Dow futures (traded in pre-market, this is when Asia is open). Markets trend down when it's down and move up when it moving up. An interesting thing to notice is that only a few hundred contracts are traded in pre-market for the dow futures and hence it could easily be manipulated. I'm typing this at 6:22 pm indian time and I can see that only 400 contracts of dow futures have been traded. You can check the volume here http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839171. I foolishly covered my shorts towards the end of todays trading session. The short covering rally today was brought on by the dow future which was trading 90 points higher at that time. Some one wanting to exit in Indian markets can pump up the dow futures (only about 20-30 contracts needed) which will trigger a rally in europe and Indian markets.