The turmoil in the American financial services industry continued today, and all of Wall Street's eyes will be on the Federal Reserve Board's Open Market Committee when it meets this afternoon to ponder the Fed's overnight target lending rate.
Some economists expect the Fed to cut the rate by another quarter percentage point to 1.75 percent, after the U.S. Labor Department reported today that with energy prices falling sharply, U.S. consumer prices declined 0.1 percent in August, the first decrease in nearly two years.
However, energy prices have since skyrocketed again in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
The Fed is expected to announce its decision about interest rates at about 1:15 p.m. (CT).
The Dow Jones Industrials Average plunged by 504 points Monday, its worst single-day fall since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In an interview with CNBC.com, Wilbur Ross, chairman and chief executive officer of WL Ross & Co., predicted as many as 1,000 American banks will close in the coming months.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., one of the two independent investment banks still standing, reported this morning that its fiscal third-quarter profit slid 70 percent from a year ago, and rival Morgan Stanley is scheduled to report its quarterly results on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Washington Mutual Inc.'s credit ratings were downgraded by Standard & Poor's, and the status of American International Group Inc. (AIG) grew dimmer as four rating companies downgraded the insurer late on Monday, giving the company little time to sell assets and receive loans to preserve its existence. AIG is a component of the Dow.
On Sunday, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. announced it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company has been around for 158 years and had even survived the Great Depression.
Across town, desperate Merrill Lynch & Co. announced it has agreed to be acquired by Bank of America Corp. for a fraction of the stock value Merrill held a year ago.
This week's events pile atop the news of the planned federal bailouts of mortgage giantsFannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the federal rescue of Bear Stearns.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was asked on ABC's "This Week" Sunday if the current economic crisis is the worst he has seen in his career.
"Oh, by far," Greenspan said. "There's no question that this is in the process of outstripping anything I've seen and it still is not resolved and still has a way to go and, indeed, it will continue to be a corrosive force until the price of homes in the United States stabilizes. That will induce a series of events around the globe which will stabilize the system."
The "unprecedented turmoil" prompted Northern Trust Co. chief executive officer Rick Waddell to post a note of assurance to customers on the company's web site.
Local stocks have not escaped the carnage this week. The BizTimes Stock Index lost 4.14 points to close at 134.64 Monday. The largest local decliners this morning were Manpower Inc. (down $1.78 to $42.45) and Bucyrus International Inc. (down $1.06 to $44.05). The largest local gainers this morning were Badger Meter Inc. (up $3.06 to $46.06) and A.O. Smith Corp. (up $1.51 to $43.57). The BizTimes Stock Index was created by Small Business Times and is monitored by North Shore Bank. The index, which measures the stock values of publicly held companies based in southeastern Wisconsin, is updated daily and can be viewed at www.biztimes.com.

New Berlin-based GMR Marketing, a provider of live marketing, has opened a new office in Vancouver, and has hired Rob Finkelstein as director of GMR Canada.
"We welcome Rob to oversee our expanded offering in Canada," said Craig Connelly, president of GMR. "Rob has worked in the Canadian market on many different initiatives and brings with him years of solid experience. He will be overseeing the development of new business opportunities and will direct the operational aspects of regional programs."
A native of Montreal, Finkelstein holds a degree in international business and marketing.  He most recently served as director of operations with a Montreal-based experiential marketing boutique agency and oversaw the Telus, Procter & Gamble, National Bank and Absolut accounts.
The GMR office in Vancouver is the company's first in western Canada and will play an important role in the service of national clients and the management of live marketing programs leading up to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.
The office's services will include strategic planning, sponsorship, staffing and full-service event activation.

Chicago Brick Oven (CBO) has teamed up with Burlington-based Harmony Outdoor Living Inc. to create a residential, wood-fired pizza oven for outdoor entertaining enthusiasts.
The new pizza oven arrives as two, ready-to-set-in-place, pre-designed modular components faced with tumbled Brussels dimensional stone.
The CBO oven features a wood storage box that elevates the oven to an ideal cooking height.
"Most installations of the new CBO/Harmony ovens take less than one hour; some take only about 30 minutes," said Carmen Parisi, president of Elmhurst, Ill.-based CBO.
"Wood-fired pizza ovens are one the hottest trends we're seeing in outdoor living for 2009," said Joe Raboine, president of Harmony Outdoor Living. "To meet the design and lifestyle demands of homeowners, caterers and landscape professionals, Harmony and CBO are making available ovens in an endless array of colors, textures and styles. Together, we're setting out to revolutionize the way outdoor pizza ovens are being designed and installed."

Stevens Point officials are confident AIG-Travel Guard can withstand its parent company's financial woes back in New York and that plans are on track for the insurance company to open its new $20 million headquarters in Stevens Point next year. Read more in SBT's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at www.biztimes.com/#news.

Promontory Point Capital, a Milwaukee-based investment banking firm, will move to new offices at 322 E. Michigan Ave. in downtown Milwaukee on Oct. 1. Read more in the latest edition of the BizTimes Money bulletin.

Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway says an increase in the county's sales tax will enable the county to cut its property taxes and shift more of the tax burden to visitors passing through the county. Read more in today's Milwaukee Biz Blog. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker argued against the proposal in a Biz Blog last Friday. The proposal will appear as a non-binding referendum for voters on the Nov. 4 ballot.