What does rate hike by Us Federal reserve indicates and what investors should do now?

 When the Federal Reserve raised the interest rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday. This indicates that the U.S. central bank will prioritize the fight against inflation over the turmoil in the banking sector. This actions of the Federal Reserve will likely drive the decisions of central banks around the world, as they seek to strike a delicate balance among growth, inflation and currency volatility.

 This decisions comes after it is nearly two weeks of turmoil in the finance industry. This is ninth consecutive increase in one year since the central bank began the current rate-raising cycle to combat rising prices. Over the last 12-months, inflation spiked to a 40-year high. After that, the Bank of England also raised interest rates by a quarter of percentage point, it is their eleventh consecutive increase since December 2021.

What does it indicates?

"The bank problems are probably making a lot of people think twice", said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, an economics professor at George Washington University and former chief economist at the Department of Labor. According to IFA Global, the hike was expected -- as a pause would have indicated a lake of confidence in the measures taken to address the troubles in the banking sector. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also indicated that even higher interest rates could be coming as inflation remained hotter than expected. Fed officials expect at least one more rate hike this year,

 according to projections on Wednesday. "If we need to raise rates higher, we will", Powell said. There had been speculation that the Fed might go slow on rate hikes and flow a loose monetary policy to bring the banking sector back on the rails, as analysts had blamed the flurry of rate hikes the last 10 months for the banking crisis. Jerome Powell said that the financial sector was "sound and resilient".

What does the Fed hike mean for investors?

When interest rates rise in the US and other developed markets, foreign investors, especially from the US, go for investments in US debt and other avenues, which impacts the flow of funds into Indian equity markets. Since the beginning of January 2023, foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) have pulled out a net of more than Rs. 27,000 crore from Indian equities. In the United States investors are settling for a long slog in the U.S. stock market in coming market in coming months, braced for more turmoil in the banking sector and worries over how the Federal Reserve's tightening will ripple through the economy. Banking sector concerns drove sharp moves in financial stocks in the United States throughout the week after the collapse of two U.S. lenders and last weekend's Swiss-government orchestrated takeover of troubled Credit Suisse by rival UBS. "The market is very nervous at this point and investors acting first and looking into nuances later ", said Wei Li, global chief investment strategist at fund giant BlackRock. The German giant Deutsche Bank shares have lost around more than a quarter of their value, including  Friday's 8.5% fall, and the cost of protecting against a default on its bonds soared, even though few put it in a class with Credit Suisse.