Wall St rallies on Fed rate hike before pulling back on Powell-Trump spat

THERE were hardly any surprises when the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday, but the reality of rising rates still weighed on US stocks.

Subsequent press conferences from Fed chairman Jerome Powell and US President Donald Trump represented the closest thing the central-banking world has ever seen to a rap battle.

In a clearly telegraphed move, the Fed raised the benchmark overnight Fed funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point to between 2 per cent and 2.25 per cent, the eighth hike of the current cycle.