Rate Cut a Small Bump on Market's Downhill Ride

SAN FRANCISCO -- Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and the Federal Reserve took them this morning, at least theoretically.

The Fed announced a 50-basis point cut in both the fed funds and discount rates. The European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank also each cut their respective key lending rates by 50 basis points.

European bourses closed higher in reaction to the multiple rate cuts, the first true coordinated global easing since 1986. On Wall Street, however, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7.1%, the S&P 500 shed 4.9% and the Nasdaq Composite declined 6.8%. ...