STORY: The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point as it continued to battle the worst outbreak of inflation in 40 years, but signaled future increases in borrowing costs could be made in smaller steps to account for the "cumulative tightening of monetary policy" it has enacted so far.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that change in pace could come as soon as the central bank's next meeting in December, but he also cautioned that there remains extensive uncertainty about how high rates will need to go and they could well end up being higher than policymakers had estimated at their last meeting in September.