Options Expiration, closing right on the number--market manipulation?

[ctv1116]

I just wanted to hear from some of the derivatives experts, a common theory which is thrown around. Do market makers try to close a stock right on the strike price of the closest option? I ask this because the two stocks I've been following, EBAY and GOOG, closed at 40.01 and 280.00, respectively. Similarly, I was trading MRK after the big verdict, and they had Jim Cramer on, and he was talking about how the market makers were artificially holding up the MRK stock at around 29.25 because of the extensive amount of puts which had been traded earlier that day (the stock later plummeted to 28 and change at the close, and a little bit more after-hours). No one on the CNBC set could figure out what Cramer was talking about. Do market makers try to manipulate stocks with high open interest to expire exactly on the strike price?