Interest rate decision to be announced

Tuesday and Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will meet and announce whether it will cut interest rates, a week after Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified before the Senate. Greenspan declined to comment on what Fed policymakers will do when they meet this week. Many investors are looking for the Fed's Open Market Committee to cut short-term interest rates by a half-point.\nIn addition to the Fed meeting, a number of market indicators will be released this week, including the first estimate of fourth-quarter gross domestic product, the monthly report on consumer confidence and the monthly employment report. Investors will be examining these reports to determine the state of the economy.\nReporting Earnings \nAT&T, Phillip Morris, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, Amazon.com, Clorox, Nokia, Verizon, Sprint and Xerox will report earnings this week.\nLast Week\nFriday, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 27.02 points to 2781.30. The Nasdaq finished the week up almost 11 points. The Nasdaq is up nearly 13 percent for the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 69.54 points, closing at 10659.98. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 72 points for the week and is down a little more than 1 percent for the year.\nStock News\nJob cuts were announced this week at Lucent Technologies Inc., AOL Time Warner Inc., J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and MCI Worldcom. Although a number of companies are cutting jobs, economists and employment experts said the odds of finding a new job are high. The U.S. unemployment rate is near a 30-year low at 4 percent. \nEricsson is no longer in the business of making mobile phones. In a statement, Erricsson said it would fully outsource production to the world's third largest electronics manufacturer, Singapore-based Flextronics International Ltd. Friday, the company reported a 64 percent decline in fourth-quarter profit and announced it expects to only break even in the first quarter. \nThursday, PMC-Sierra, posted fourth-quarter earnings in line with analysts' expectations of 34 cents a share, according to First Call/Thomson Financial. The developer of communications chips also announced a weak outlook for the first quarter and announced that revenue was expected to decline. Friday, PMC-Sierra sank 23 percent. The company is now down more than 70 percent from a 52-week high of $255.50 set last March.\nFinal Note\nThe Fed's decision regarding interest rates will be announced Wednesday. If the Fed does lower interest rates, it will be for the second time this month. The Fed surprised Wall Street Jan. 3, with a half-point rate cut. Many on Wall Street are predicting that the Fed will again lower rates.