Bear Stearns and a Market Meltdown

The next 12 to 36 hours are going to be very interesting. I will post and update frequently.

Treasuries rose after the Federal Reserve cut its discount rate by a quarter-point and traders added to bets the central bank will reduce its target for overnight lending at a meeting tomorrow.

Futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade show a 52 percent chance the Fed will lower its 3 percent target to 2 percent. The odds of a reduction that large were zero last week. The rest of the bets are on a cut to 2.25 percent. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is increasing efforts to keep losses in credit markets from pushing the U.S. economy into a recession.

from Bloomberg

The Nikkei Index is down 514.61 @ 11:00 AM Japanese Time