Investors focus on rate path after Fed hike

NEW YORK — U.S. stock investors will focus next week on the trajectory of interest rates, tensions in the Middle East and fresh calls to slow AI advancement as they weigh whether equity indexes can make new all-time highs. Markets will continue to digest Wednesday’s decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve to hike interest rates for the first time in three years, in an effort to tamp down above-target inflation. While the rate increase was widely expected, investors were left uncertain about how many hikes the U.S. central bank might eventually implement and the implications for already-climbing Treasury yields. Stocks…