Stocks have jumped all over the place in the past two months, and yet have gone nowhere.

The S&P 500 Index closed the month of June at 1,280. It closed July at 1,267. It closed August at 1,282. Yes, it's taken three months to move a grand total of two points!

No wonder this market is driving everyone crazy, and has given hope and fits to both bulls and bears. This summer reminds me of a Dr. Seuss story in which there's a lot of action but nothing actually happens. Maybe we should turn to the good doctor for analysis rather than economists, fund managers or corporate titans: "From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere."

It's not just the S&P 500 that is acting like a Lorax with its head cut off. It's the same with the Dow Jones Industrials Average and the NYSE Composite. All made bear-market lows in July, and have since traced out patterns that appear to be short-term counter-trends that are running out of steam.

So is the market about to fall over? Probably, but let's not go straight to the punch line.

The trouble with dismissing the recent rally as immaterial is that a couple of other major indexes are actually doing quite a bit better.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average ($TRAN) made its low back in March and has been up quite strongly since, suggesting that a stealth bull market is under way. Heck, the Biotech Index ($BTK) was even making a new high as recently as two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, we must observe that this going-nowhere market has occurred against a backdrop of news that would normally be considered extremely bearish. After all, banks are being shut down for insolvency every week now; mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) are seeing their balance sheets blown up and their shares sinking below $7; oil and gas prices are steadfastly above $110; Russia has decided to reignite the Cold War with the invasion of a neighboring sovereign state; brokerages are desperate for capital; loan growth is shrinking; earnings are withering across Europe and the emerging markets; and the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election is thoroughly uncertain.

So really, couldn't all of this sideways action be a precursor to a fourth-quarter surge in prices, as sellers have had an opportunity to exit the scene and be replaced by stronger hands?