The smooth evolution of the tunneling gap ofBi2Sr2CaCu2O8with doping from a pseudogap state in the underdoped cuprates to a superconducting state at optimal and overdoping reflects an underlying SO(6) instability structure of the (&pgr;, 0) saddle points. The pseudogap is probably not associated with superconductivity, but is related to competing nesting instabilities, which are responsible for the stripe phases. We earlier introduced a simpleAnsatzof this competition in terms of a pinned Balseiro-Falicov (pBF) model of competing charge density wave and (s-wave) superconductivity. This model gives a good description of the phase diagram and the tunneling and photoemission spectra. Here, we briefly review these results, and discuss some recent developments: experimental evidence for a non-superconducting component to the pseudogap; and SO(6) generalizations of the pBF model, including flux phase and d-wave superconductivity. ©1999 American Institute of Physics.