The Coming Week: Going Nowhere Fast

Having to deal with far-flung hackers breaking into his company's network and attempting to steal source code, Microsoft (MSFT Quote) CEO Steve Ballmer was probably a pretty frustrated fellow by the end of last week, not knowing whether he was dealing with a harmless situation or a full-bore disaster.

At least he can be happy about one thing -- his stock did move sharply higher.

After rebounding from a near-term bottom, the Nasdaq Composite Index and S&P 500 probably had the Microsoft tagline in mind: Were do you want to go today? Or rather: Where do you want to go this week? Despite the buying witnessed late in the week, the answer for October has been "nowhere."

Bear, Bull, Bull, Bear -- Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

There are a number of good reasons why the stock market isn't likely to drop sharply in the coming week -- but that doesn't mean it's going to rally sharply, either.

Equities have been a hard place to make money this month. With more than 80% of the S&P 500 done reporting earnings, the outlook, if anything, has grown more pessimistic. ...