A glimpse of the business week ahead

Heads up: The Federal Reserve's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee meets Tuesday on interest rates and the economy. The Fed is expected to again nudge up interest rates. And it's triple-witching day Friday, when index futures and index and stock options expire. The quarterly event can lead to a volatile trading day.

Tuesday: Washington state releases unemployment figures for November. The state gained about 10,000 jobs in October, but the unemployment rate remained at 5.6 percent.

Wednesday: Today is the final scheduled day of negotiations on a new contract between Alaska Airlines and the pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). With the airline industry in crisis, the other major carriers have slashed wages and benefits, leaving Alaska with the highest costs of any major airline. It is asking for deep cuts from its pilots. If no agreement is reached in negotiations taking place in Vancouver, B.C., the contract automatically goes to arbitration. ... The MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest hosts a biotech forum at 5:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue featuring Lee Hartwell, president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Seats are $40. For more information visit www.mitwa.org.

Thursday: Nike, the world's biggest athletic-shoe maker, announces its second-quarter financial results. ... Cell Therapeutics makes a presentation at an investor conference in New York organized by Wachovia Capital Markets.