<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The US Federal Reserve hiked interest rate by a rare half-percentage-point last night. This is the sharpest increase in interest rate since 2000. The US Central Bank announced plans to shrink its 9 trillion Dollar asset portfolio starting next month in an effort to reduce inflation that is running at a four-decade high.</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">The moves, announced after a two-day policy meeting, will raise the central bank's benchmark federal-funds rate to a target range between 0.75 percent and 1 percent.</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">Together, the steps mark the most aggressive Government tightening of monetary policy at one meeting in decades, aimed at rapidly reducing the economic stimulus that has contributed to rising price pressures.</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">Major US stocks rallied across the board last night after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in the press conference ruled out larger rate hikes and emphasized the possibility of a soft landing, tamping down inflation without inducing a recession.</span></p>