Coming Week: Pins and Needles

As investors look toward another week of big earnings reports and uncertainty about the financial system, many are hoping that the panic-fueled selloff of the previous sessions will halt, or at least abate.

Investors will be waiting expectantly for any news that emerges from G7 meetings in Washington over the weekend. Finance ministers and central bankers of the world's top economies will be discussing the global financial crisis and formulating strategies to tackle it before the pain gets worse.

Some ideas have emerged before the meeting, including a suggestion by Japan's finance minister to set up a global pool of money through the International Monetary Fund to provide loans to struggling nations. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has advised that other countries follow his nation's lead by injecting large sums of capital into banks and insuring their funds to spur lending activity. Others have suggested insuring all bank deposits, as Ireland did, or conducting another coordinated cut to global interest rate targets, as several countries did this week.

The maelstrom of negativity, uncertainty and distrust sapped trillions of dollars in wealth from the U.S. stock market last week, and caused similar cavities in markets around the globe. The dramatic plunge -- some would say crash -- has U.S. regulators considering further action against short-sellers as well as temporary circuit breakers for individual stocks, according to the Wall Street Journal. Italy and Greece banned all short selling on Friday.