Merrill's Doll Sees Stocks 'Muddling Through'

At this time every year, Robert Doll, president and chief investment officer at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, gazes into his crystal ball and tells investors what the future is likely to hold. For 2005, the forecast isn't particularly inspiring.

In fact, Doll is calling for economic growth to slow, earnings to miss expectations, interest rates and commodity prices to rise, and equity returns to be barely positive.

"We think it will be a 'muddling through' sort of year," he said Tuesday morning at a press conference in lower Manhattan. ...