It is options week. 1000 contracts of the $40 Put for this Friday were bought just yesterday morning for $0.35. They're now worth around a buck. Previous to that there was only a 100 or so Put contracts. There are a 1000+ Call contracts at $37.50 and 600+ Put at $37.50 and "coincidently" the low today was slightly above that same price.
Who knows how many exposed hedge fund computers were knocked offline thanks to Sandy which allowed the stock to creep up un-manipulated during that time before options expiration. They needed to work quick because the Put buy yesterday did not organically move the price much lower at all.
50% (500K) of todays volume was traded in the first hour and a half, before the CAFC non announcement and it only took just 150K in the first half hour (100k at 10am) to cause a $4 drop from the days high.
Hmmm ... 1000 Put contracts equals a 100K trade at 10 am to drop it below $40.
Hakuna muttata, circle of life, whatever the stock commandments say is supposed to drift to max pain whatever, but for this to be done in a half hour block when the market did not tank, is bullshit ... stocks go down, but shouldn't drop that quick on absolutely nothing and this appears to be clear manipulation IMO.
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