Perhaps you can answer a question I've wondered about. Like the OP I've noticed that it looks like someone has been trying to manipulate the market to get it above 10k and keep it there. When it was below there wasn't sufficient good news to drive buyers to the market, at least not that I saw. If that is correct, what mechanism are they using to prop it up? Obviously Soros has enough money to play the market that way, but he seems to high profile and he doesn't strike me as the type to risk his money that way just to make Obama look good.
That being said, the only way to influence any market is to buy or sell stuff in that market. Once a participant buys, the influence he has on market price diminishes rapidly as time goes by, unless he buys more. And keeps doing it. The market price is whatever price at which the last trade executed, even if it's only 1 share. So the PPT could buy 1 billion shares of IBM @ $100/share, but if the next trade (of only 1 share) is at $90, then they've wasted their money. And eventully they have to sell the shares they bought—driving down the price.
Long-term manipulation of the broad market can't be done. The sums of money involved could NOT be hidden.