Stock markets, if they are as free as advertised, NEVER GO UP in a straight line like this (Chart courtesy Jesse’s blog)

There is indisputable evidence that the US treasury, the Federal Reserve bank and the select few banks on the Street are engineering this market surge on low volume. Now, the Government plans to sell its massive stake in CitiBank. (via Reuters)

(Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury could unveil a preset trading plan next month for the sale of its 27 percent stake in Citigroup Inc (C.N), Bloomberg said on Thursday, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The Treasury plan will lock the government into a schedule for selling its shares with the aim of eliminating any concerns that the sales are based on non-public information, Bloomberg said.

The Treasury would issue instructions on how many shares to sell and at what price, it said.

Citigroup has posted more than $100 billion of writedowns and credit losses since late 2007 and the bank’s shares have lost 90 percent of their value since late 2006, with the bank requiring three different government rescues in 2008 and 2009.

I am never a fan of conspiracy theories. But everything that is happening in the stock markets since March of last year is suspicious. Pros at ZeroHedge has this to say about Govt selling Citi stake:

As expected, the entire manipulated, short-squeeze based market run up was merely for the benefit of the government selling its Citi stake