Watching Paint Dry

Ahead of the economic and earnings data this week, stocks aren't moving a whole lot. Why the Wall Street buy programs didn't come in to buy after the world didn't blow up over the weekend tells me that folks are on hold until they have a few motivating reasons to do something else. My sense is that if they can't get the market down soon, they'll try to take the market higher by the end of the trading day. But, that's only an on-the-spot guess - nothing actionable I'm afraid.

Market participants, on the whole, are both dazed and confused. This afternoon I plan on working on my book (progress has been very slow this summer). Also, if I have enough time, I will do a little more research on buying a new laptop. After my Dell died on the plane trip to Kauai, I'm now looking for a replacement. Both the Lenovo ThinkPad X60 and Sony's TX-Series laptops are my top choices, but neither one is completely what I'm looking for as both have things about them I don't like. For example, the X60 has no trackpad (which I like to use) and Sony's TX series requires you to subscribe to Cingular's broadband network (which is not as good as Verizon's based on what I've heard and read). How very frustrating!