(MONEY Magazine) – MARCH

21 FEDERAL OPEN MARKET COMMITTEE MEETS. Front and center is the question: Will the Federal Reserve hike interest rates 50 basis points instead of 25? "This would diminish long-term uncertainty at the expense of short-term pain, but there is no signal yet from them that compels us to think that they will double up," says Bob DiClemente, head of Salomon Smith Barney U.S. Economic Research.

27 OPEC SUMMIT MEETING. Ministers from 11 oil-exporting countries meet at OPEC headquarters in Vienna to decide whether to renew productivity limits that are scheduled to expire on March 31. Those caps have forced oil from $12 a barrel a year ago to a recent high of $30. U.S. officials such as Energy Secretary Bill Richardson have asked for the caps to end.

APRIL

1 JAPAN POSTAL SAVINGS CERTIFICATES MATURE. CDs worth 50 trillion yen--or about $450 billion --will mature April 1. James Bogin, manager of the Matthews Japan Fund, predicts that a chunk of this money will be invested in the Japanese stock market, perhaps boosting share prices.

--JUDY FELDMAN