After surprising the markets with a 25 basis point discount rate cut on Sunday and extending the discount rate window to investment banks, the Federal Reserve is set to make another historic move by cutting interest rates 100bp tomorrow.  Or will it?

James Mound reviews futures and commodities in his weekly report for the week of March 17.

On Sunday, Bear Stearns made the shocking announcement that it was working on a buyout by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. for a mere $2/share. The Fed stepped in to try to cushion the blow by cutting interest rates another 25 basis points just two days prior to an anticipated 75 basis point rate cut most had been expecting coming out of Tuesday's meeting.

Tim Bourquin interviews James Stankiewicz, who talks about how he determines the strike price and expiration he wants to buy and how he manages each trade.

John Mauldin takes a look at the economy and its long term effect on our portfolio returns.

It took investors a while to connect the dots, but now they seem to have the picture: the Fed’s big bank bailout will not really wipe out losses, nor make Wall Street more profitable. What it will do is save the big banks from going broke, while destroying the dollar.

Fed funds futures have fully priced in 75 basis points of easing and set a 60 percent probability of a 100 basis point cut.

After the initial reaction to the open wore off, the market was able to pick itself up extremely well on Thursday. A report by Standard & Poor fueled speculation that banks may be close to seeing an end in sight in terms of the current subprime meltdown.

Professional system trader Art Collins shares his daily biases in the index, bonds and currency futures markets for March 14.

It is tempting to look at this market and come to a simple conclusion: the economy is declining and the feds are trying to stop the decline with more cash and credit.